Businesses call for domestic AI, manufacturing

By Andrew Rice
The Center Square

Business leaders on Wednesday called for increased domestic manufacturing and a focus on artificial intelligence in U.S. supply chains.

Melody Richard, vice president of Pantry at Walmart, highlighted the supermarket chain’s $350 billion commitment to U.S. manufacturing through 2031. The commitment is part of a vast array touted by President Donald Trump as part of his effort to bring manufacturing back to the United States.

The administration has touted more than $10.6 trillion in U.S. and foreign investments in what it calls “The Trump Effect.” The investments range from $1.4 trillion from the United Arab Emirates to $600 billion from Apple.

Walmart is not included on the list provided by the White House but Richard said the company is committed to partnering with domestic suppliers in the country.

“I like to think our collaboration is about creating accessibility and affordability, and then exciting customers with great new products, and it happens all the time,” Richard said.

One of those collaborators is Ferrero, a business focused on small packaged sweet snacks like Nutella and Kinder. Michael Lindsey, president of Ferrero North America, said the company has hired more than 1,000 new employees in North America to manufacture more products throughout the country.

“It doesn’t make sense to be shipping sweet packaged foods from around the world into the U.S. environment, so we need to manufacture in the U.S. with U.S. tastes in mind,” Lindsey said.

Lindsey also said he is looking into investments in agriculture to bring more of the supply chain to the United States. He said the company has sought to purchase hazelnuts from Oregon in order to reshore consumer demand.

“Just to set the expectation for where hazelnuts are, we need to grow them in America,” Lindsey said. “Ferrero buys 1/3 of the world’s hazelnuts. So we’ve invested in a big way in hazelnuts in Oregon.”

Leaders also called for a greater reliance on artificial intelligence to increase access to the supply chain. Dayna Grayson, co-founder of Construct Capital, said physical AI and robotics is the biggest area where companies are looking to invest.

However, Grayson said robot development in the supply chain is still in the early stages and not yet capable of replacing humans.

“It’s the ability to replicate what only humans can do, which is very, very hard if you think about it; the way we sense, the way we touch, the way we lift,” Grayson said. “AI has been a big word in the digital space for three or four years. It has been a sort of elusive word in the manufacturing and the physical industry spaces, and now I think it’s becoming a big word.”

However, Kevin O’Hanlan, vice president of North America Government Relations at the Global Electronics Association, said manufacturing resources to invest in AI and robotics will be difficult.

O’Hanlan said President Donald Trump’s tariffs on foreign countries like Vietnam have made it difficult for the U.S. to move away from manufacturing in China. He said companies appear to be waiting on the Trump administration’s tariff policies to end rather than making investments in new areas.

“A lot of companies are making a very difficult decision to deal with this delay in getting products to market versus trying to make an uncertain investment decision,” O’Hanlan said.

O’Hanlan pointed out that many graduates in the United States are not interested in electronics manufacturing, which he said has contributed to overseas investments. He said most people are drawn to big companies like Apple, Google and Meta, which leaves smaller electronic companies without workers to develop.

“Frankly, we just need more people, and that’s part of what we’re doing in the association, it’s not just the people, but demystifying the career path,” O’Hanlan said. “This is a career field where you’ve got infrastructure, you’ve got mobility, you’ve got the ability to really, really build a good life where you want to build a good life with the skill set.”