Semiconductor imports and exports have been rising all year

Exports have been rising steadily all year for semiconductors, which were one of the top categories of goods exports in August, according to the latest Commerce Department trade report. At the same time, we also imported more semiconductors — both for the month and year-to-date.

Semiconductors are used in the grid, data centers, your car — they’re pretty much the guts of most electronic devices.

“When you press the button to roll up your window, there's a semiconductor that tells it not to pinch your finger,” said Nina Turner, an analyst with IDC.

IDC estimates about 10% of the world’s semiconductors are manufactured in the U.S. That includes specialty chips used in cars and communications, along with certain types of memory chips — those in particular have gotten more expensive in the past year.

The U.S. has also made exporting chips a priority.

“Semiconductor companies have announced literally billions of dollars worth of investments in the last few years in manufacturing capability in the United States, and the spark for that really was the Chips and Science Act,” said Jason Oxman, head of the Information Technology Industry Council, a trade group. (That’s the 2022 law that poured tens of billions into chip manufacturing.)

To be clear, we still import a whole lot more semiconductors than we export, but even many of those have their roots in the U.S.

“So, if you only look at who manufactures a chip and which country that chip comes from, you miss all of the complexity in the value chain,” said Chris Miller, author of the book “Chip War,” who also advises semiconductor startups. “You often miss the answers to who makes the most money per chip.”

He said almost all of the world's leading chip designers are in the U.S.

“Often, the majority of the profit accrues to the design firm rather than to the companies that actually do the manufacturing of that chip,” he said.

And for chips made overseas, that profit comes from an exported service.