The Vice President tours the Hemlock Semiconductor Next-Generation Finishing Facility in Hemlock, Michigan, on October 28, 2024.

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Vice President Harris toured a semiconductor plant in the swing state of Michigan on Monday to highlight major federal investments in manufacturing jobs recently planned by former President Donald Trump.

The investments come from the CHIPS and Science Act – a bipartisan bill that pumps $54 billion into the semiconductor manufacturing industry to try to rebuild an industry dominated by Taiwan, South Korea and China.

“Look: we have to win the competition for the 21st century. “We will not let China beat us in the competition for the 21st century,” Harris said after touring a factory near Saginaw owned by Corning that makes polysilicon semiconductors.

The company received $325 million in CHIPS financing and is nearly doubling its workforce to 3,000 employees as it expands.

“These are jobs that pay 40% above the regional average,” said Corning CEO Wendell Weeks. “They help people build lives, raise families and foster strong communities.”

The visit comes as some Democrats are calling on Harris to focus more on the economy in the final days of the campaign.

Investments from the CHIPS Act have supported massive expansion of the semiconductor industry in Arizona – another swing state – as well as other regions of the country. The White House said projects supported by CHIPS funds helped create more than 115,000 jobs.

Former President Donald Trump – seen here during a press conference on October 25, 2024 in Austin, Texas – conducted an interview last week with podcaster Joe Rogan, seen here in an August 18, 2023 file photo.

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On Friday, Trump criticized the law during a lengthy interview The Joe Rogan Experience. “This chip deal is so bad,” Trump said on the podcast, saying the subsidies went to “rich companies.”

Trump said he could have imposed tariffs to encourage more companies to build the plants in the United States.