Population growth in the U.S. state of Kentucky has lagged behind the rest of America overall for much of the last 75 years. A push by President Joe Biden to move manufacturing onshore will change not just its trajectory, but that of others like it, too. New investments will drive overhauls everywhere from upstate New York to Ohio to Illinois, reinventing parts of the country that languished for decades and redistributing the U.S. workforce – but at a cost to companies.
Biden solidified his push to reverse the tide of globalization in August 2022 with two major pieces of legislation. The CHIPS and Science Act provided $53 billion to bring semiconductor manufacturing and development to the United States. The Inflation Reduction Act, meanwhile, earmarked $30 billion in corporate tax credits to produce solar panels and renewable energy components domestically.
As a result, companies around the globe are opening up operations stateside. Some of that will be in new developments in already fast-growing states: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (2330.TW), for instance, is building a 1,100-acre, $40 billion chip factory in Phoenix.
But Rust Belt states – once manufacturing powerhouses that slumped in the era of deindustrialization – also stand to win big. A new electric-vehicle battery manufacturing plants is going up in Kentucky. Micron Technology (MU.O) is creating 9,000 jobs in the Syracuse, New York area, investing in a $100 billion mega-complex. And high-tech manufacturing can find opportunity in abandoned old-tech infrastructure. Carmaker Rivian Automotive (RIVN.O) snapped up an old Nissan Motor (7201.T) plant in Normal, Illinois. Lordstown Motors (RIDE.O) took over an old General Motors (NYSE:GM) facility in Ohio.
Courtesy Reuters. By Lauren Sylva Laughlin.
