The reason for the chips act is national defense. Chips are required for the military, and production is currently concentrated to Taiwan.
All else is just excuse and marketing.

Yes, national defense (and some level of economic defense) is certainly an important reason for wanting to have domestic production of certain key industries. But if the CHIPS Act isn't on the board for Democratic achievements to help the non-college "working class" voters, it further undercuts the Democratic argument that their record centered the priorities of those folks.

Found this article, referencing a study of the semiconductor industry:

The industry and Oxford analysis found that about 20% of people employed in the semiconductor industry have not attended college, 15% have some college experience, 9% have an associate degree and 56% have a bachelor’s or graduate degree.

And although the report said that "workers consistently earn more than the U.S. average at all education attainment levels," the report indicates that to earn the amount Biden claims, workers need an undergraduate or graduate degree.

statesman.com - Semiconductor industry employees need college degrees six figures contrary to biden

Which kind of tracks what I intuited about the CHIPS Act. It "in-sources" manufacturing jobs again, but these really aren't the type of manufacturing jobs that the non-college working class would be expected to ask the Democrats to focus on. These generally aren't the "shower after work, not before work" jobs that are used to illustrate the difference between blue collar jobs and others. If the majority of those working in the industry have an undergraduate degree or higher, this isn't a "populist" measure that centers working class voters as much as they might like.