In August of 2022, the CHIPS and Science Act was signed into law by the Biden Administration in an effort to bolster America’s microchip manufacturing and return it back to the birthplace of the semiconductor’s. Despite the recent publicity and big investments in chip manufacturing, the U.S. isn’t known for producing the circuitry that makes much of our technology work. Nor do they have a workforce that is prepared to build those circuits competitively–yet.

“One of the things to consider is that when semiconductor was offshored, it went to Asia. And so even in the semiconductor world, a lot of the people that do that kind of work are Korean, Taiwanese, Chinese, and Malaysian,” said the head of the people team at Samsung Semiconductor, Rebecca McCathern.

McCathern spoke about the semiconductor market with the editor-at-large of Fortune, Michal Lev-Ram, during a From Day One fireside chat in Silicon Valley.

While Samsung is known for cell phones, televisions, and refrigerators, according to McCathern, “that’s an entirely separate division of Samsung from the semiconductor business, which is where our division sits." Within the semiconductor world, she says they are very much U.S.-based. And where other areas of the tech industry have seen major layoffs, the semiconductor business is dealing with the inverse problem.

“With the offshoring that happened a few decades ago, semiconductors has been one of the areas where, as we look to have more onshoring of that talent, we have a serious talent gap,” McCathern said. The industry is continuing to grow because they need talent for both manufacturing and engineering. “There’s not enough talent in the U.S. alone, so we actually need to build that pipeline of talent coming up through the generations," McCathern said.

A 2023 report authored by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) says that “Since the CHIPS Act was introduced, companies from around the world have responded enthusiastically, announcing dozens of new semiconductor ecosystem projects in the U.S., totaling well over $200 billion in private investments.” Semiconductor projects will create tens of thousands of direct jobs and will support hundreds of thousands of additional jobs throughout the economy, according to the report.

Right now, Samsung is staffed mostly by people who are not from the U.S., “over 50% are from a country that is not the U.S. And so when we go looking for talent, we don’t find it." Semiconductors aren’t currently a major focus for engineering students but it needs to be. McCathern says they are building out that pipeline by working with diverse groups, like the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and the Society of Women Engineers, to encourage college students to pursue a career in semiconductors. They’re even talking to highschool teachers and administrators about the semiconductor career path, so they can better inform their students. “We’re really trying to get into the K-12 minds to start building that pipeline of potential talent earlier. And that will help us with our diversity pipeline as well.”

According to SIA’s report, the investments in chips and the effort to fill out the industry by companies like Samsung are long-term plans. But on its current trajectory, semiconductor manufacturing is set to fall short some 67,000 roles across the industry by 2030 in the United States.

“That isn't line manufacturing. It’s working on the robots that work on the line, all the way through advanced engineering. And it’s a gap across all of the semiconductor companies,” McCathern said.

She points out that even though they have their competitors, they’re working across the aisle because the talent shortage doesn’t just affect the competition. “We do partner with each other to create solutions, because Samsung is not going to solve this problem by ourselves. But if we can work with all of our other semiconductor competitors and partners to build up that pipeline of talent, it’ll help us all.”

The lack of manufacturing in the US not only raises economic questions, it also raises national security concerns. Being reliant on other countries puts the U.S. at risk. McCathern says if the U.S. continues to be too reliant on another country’s supply chain, the risk will only increase.

However, the energy around semiconductors is starting to spur movement and interest in the pipeline of workers coming up. “When we went to universities last fall, we had ten times more people in line for our booths at the universities that we target than we’ve ever seen,” McCathern said.

As with all things, AI plays a big role in semiconductors, and will likely play bigger roles in the future. Samsung is starting to build into those skillsets, too, which aren’t going to all be engineers and researchers, bachelors, masters, and PhD students. McCathern says they need people with technical skills, but they don’t have to be engineers.

“We’re working with even the junior college level to build out the skills for these manufacturing roles. It’s a little bit like going into plumbing or electric or automotive. It’s the same sort of skill-building where you need to be technical, but you don’t need to be a full blown engineer.”

Matthew Koheler is a freelance journalist and licensed real estate agent based in Washington, DC. His work has appeared in Greater Greater Washington, The Washington Post, The Southwester, and Walking Cinema, among others.