U.S. President Joe Biden at Intel’s Ocotillo Campus on March 20, 2024 in Chandler, Arizona. - Photo: Rebecca Noble (Getty Images)
As the Biden administration prepares to pass power to President-elect Donald Trump, U.S. chipmakers are rushing to finalize federal funding.
In 2022, President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act to boost semiconductor manufacturing, research, and development in the U.S. The $280 billion package includes $52 billion in subsidies for chips.
However, Trump’s criticism of the Chips Act as a “bad” deal has made some worried chipmakers eager to finalize their funding before he enters office. The president-elect has said the U.S. should instead put tariffs on chips coming into the U.S.
“That chip deal is so bad, we put up billions of dollars for rich companies to come and borrow the money and build chip companies here, and they’re not going to give us the good companies anyway,” Trump said during an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan in October.
In order to finalize funding, the Commerce Deparment has had to complete due diligence for chipmakers including Intel (INTC), Taiwan Semiconductor Manfuacturing Company, and Micron (MU). The award will be disbursed based on each company’s completion of project milestones, the department said.
With Trump entering office this month, here are the chipmakers that have finalized Chips Act funding so far.
Polar Semiconductor
Polar Semiconductor facility in Bloomington, Minnesota on October 24, 2015. - Photo: TRIPPLAAR KRISTOFFER/SIPA (AP)
The funding will support the expansion and modernization of the company’s facility for manufacturing sensor and power chips in Bloomington, Minnesota.
In May, the Commerce Department proposed up to $120 million in federal incentives for Polar Semiconductor.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company facility in Phoenix, Arizona on January 24, 2023. - Photo: Caitlin O’Hara/The Washington Post (Getty Images)
TSMC Arizona, a subsidiary of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSM), was awarded up to $6.6 billion in direct funding under the Chips Act, the Commerce Department announced in November.
The funding will support the chipmaker’s planned $65 billion investment in three greenfield fabrication sites in Phoenix, Arizona.
The funding will support the company’s $13 billion investment over the next decade in its manufacturing sites in New York and Vermont.
In February, the Commerce Department proposed $1.5 billion in direct funding for GlobalFoundries.
Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, California on October 28, 2024. - Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg (Getty Images)
Rocket Lab (RKLB), the parent company of space-grade solar cells provider SolAero Technologies, was awarded up to $23.9 million in direct funding under the Chips Act, the Commerce Department announced in November.
The funding will support the modernization and expansion of the company’s facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that is projected to increase Rocket Labs’ compound semiconductor production by 50% over the next three years.
BAE Systems’ Barrow-in-Furness shipyard in Cumbria on October 30, 2024. - Photo: Dave Nelson/PA Images (Getty Images)
BAE Systems (BAESY) Electronic Systems, a business unit of BAE Systems, was awarded up to $35.5 million in direct funding under the Chips Act, the Commerce Department announced in November.
The funding will support the modernization of BAE Systems’ Microelectronics Center in Nashua, New Hampshire. The company plans to quadruple its production capacity for Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) chips in the modernized center. MMIC chips are critical for advanced military aircraft and commercial satellite systems.
Last December, the Commerce Department proposed $35 million in federal incentives for BAE Systems.
Intel
Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, California on October 2, 2024. - Photo: Andrej Sokolow/dpa (Getty Images)
The funding will directly support Intel’s nearly $90 billion investment in the U.S. by the end of the decade, as part of its more than $100 billion expansion plan for fabrication and advanced packaging facilities in Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio, and Oregon.
The funding will support the company’s construction of a state-of-the-art manufacturing center in Colorado Springs, Colorado for liquid filtration products and highly specializied containers called Front-Opening-Unified Pods (FOUPs) that are used to secure chip wafers during the transportation process.
The funding will support the company’s construction of a 120,000 square-foot facility in Covington, Georgia. It will also go toward the development of substrates technology that is used in advanced chip packaging.
The Chips Act funding will support Micron’s two-decade plan to invest $100 billion in New York and $25 billion in Idaho for advanced memory chip manufacturing.
The Chips Act funding will support the South Korean chipmaker’s investment of $3.87 billion in West Lafayette, Indiana for a memory packaging plant for AI chips and an advanced packaging fabrication, research, and development facility.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at Amkor Technology in Manila, Philippines on March 19, 2024. - Photo: Evelyn Hockstein (AP)
Amkor Technology (AMKR) Arizona, a subsidiary of Amkor Technology, was awarded up to $407 million in direct funding under the Chips Act, the Commerce Department announced in December.
The Chips Act funding will support the company’s investment of $2 billion in a greenfield advanced packaging and test facility in Peoria, Arizona.
The Chips Act funding will support the company’s investment of more than $18 billion to construct two state-of-the-art chip facilities in Texas and one in Utah by the end of the decade.
The Chips Act funding will support the South Korean chipmaker’s investment of more than $37 billion to expand its chip development and production facilities in Taylor and Austin, Texas in the coming years.
