Ex-Wall Streeters to spearhead $100 bn for US chip revival

For years the titans of finance have argued Wall Street could spend money more efficiently than the government can. Now a handful of bankers will get the chance to see if they're right.

- 

Deep inside the commerce department, secretary Gina Raimondo has pulled together a team including former executives from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and KKR & Co. to divvy up about $100 billion worth of subsidies and loan guarantees the government has set aside to turn the US back into a semiconductor powerhouse. The tiny electronic components that run everything from electric vehicles to nuclear missiles are at the center of a geopolitical struggle between Washington and Beijing.

Raimondo's team-which also includes specialists from national security to workforce development aims to use the cash to lure the biggest chipmakers and suppliers to build a string of new factories here, reversing a decades-long shift of their production to East Asia that Washington worries has left America vulnerable.