As global technological competition intensifies, the U.S. is prioritizing the onshoring of semiconductor manufacturing capacity. However, with hundreds of billions of dollars of private capital pouring into AI infrastructure, there is a growing consensus that fragmented, unilateral industrial policies are insufficient to secure sustainable global tech leadership in the current AI era. The generative AI revolution is not the product of a single nation or a few tech giants; rather, it is built upon a deeply interconnected global hardware ecosystem.

To examine these dynamics, the Chey Institute for Advanced Studies hosted a special session titled “Advancing U.S. Tech Leadership in the AI Era: The Power of the Allied Semiconductor Ecosystem” at the SCSP AI+ Expo 2026 in Washington, D.C., on May 8. This session moved beyond a single-nation approach to diagnose the structural realities and strategic implications of the allied semiconductor ecosystem.

Panelists representing three critical pillars of the global value chain - demand/policy (U.S.), advanced foundry (Taiwan), and next-generation memory (South Korea) - convened to identify physical and structural bottlenecks and outline a unified policy approach. This issue brief summarizes the session’s core insights and offers policy recommendations for strengthening the technical cooperation in the allied semiconductor ecosystem.

Moderator:
• Dan Kim (Chief Strategy Officer, TechInsights)

Panelists:
• Mike Flynn (Senior Vice President and Counsel, Information Technology Industry Council - ITI)
• Missye Brickell (Senior Director of Government Relations, TSMC)
• Michael Mansour (Senior Director for Government Affairs, Semiconductors & AI, SK Americas)

Issue Brief by Minseung Kim
Program Manager, Global Affairs Team