Earlier this year, China forbade the US from purchasing any of its rare earth metals, including germanium and gallium. Among other things, these metals are essential to the production of advanced microchips and solar batteries.
"Yes, we want to create jobs in America. Yes, we need manufacturing in America. Fundamentally, this is a national security initiative. The United States of America really makes no leading-edge chips on our shores today," Raimondo said at the Ronald Reagan National Defense Forum in California.
She added that even the chips marketed under the brand of US technology company Nvidia are all made in Taiwan.
"I do not need to tell anyone in this audience the risks related to Taiwan or China. So at the end of the day, I am going to do my very best to stretch this capital, be creative and get everyone a good number," Raimondo said.
Media reported at the end of October that Nvidia stopped accepting orders from Chinese enterprises for the manufacture of new chips due to export restrictions imposed by the US administration.
In August 2022, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order to implement the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, which includes more than $52 billion in subsidies for US semiconductor manufacturers in an effort to counter China's growing technological clout.