Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker speaks amid employee unrest, AI chip veteran Simona Jankowski is leaving Nvidia, and Jessica Gomez is the first woman to lead a recipient of CHIPS Act money. Have a wonderful Wednesday!
- A first in CHIP funding. President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law in 2022 with the goal of reinvigorating the American semiconductor industry via billions of dollars of funding to leading companies in the sector. Until last week, all the companies receiving this funding had one thing in common: They were run by men.
That has now changed thanks to Jessica Gomez, cofounder and CEO of Rogue Valley Microdevices (RVM), an organization that manufactures microelectromechanical systems (MEMs) for clients across the automotive, biomedical, industrial, and agricultural industries. Gomez launched RVM in 2003 with her husband, Patrick Kayatta, who now serves as VP and CTO. It is the first woman-owned and minority-owned business to receive CHIPS investment from the Biden administration. Gomez and Kayatta, who have both spent their careers in the semiconductor industry, “mortgaged everything” they owned and took on “about $70,000 in credit card debt” to launch their Oregon-based company, Gomez says.
