Earlier this month, Thomas Caulfield, the new CEO of chip manufacturer GlobalFoundries, went to Washington, D.C., to make his pitch that the U.S. federal government needs to do more to support domestic chip manufacturing.

GlobalFoundries already has received funding and incentives of hundreds of millions of dollars from New York state for the company’s most advanced chip manufacturing facility in the upstate town of Malta. But Mr. Caulfield believes that the U.S. could lose ground to China and other countries willing to put public money behind the chip industry, which he says is vital to both national security and economic competitiveness. His pitch, which arrives amid growing concern that China one day could usurp the U.S. semiconductor industry, could find a receptive audience in Washington. Other chipmakers, say analysts, are likely to take notice.