The White House’s $39 billion in chip-making incentives are now available

When President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law in 2022, he put $52 billion in tax credits and funding on the table to help jump-start the US semiconductor industry, with $39 billion earmarked specifically for incentives for semiconductor manufacturing. Now, we’re starting to see how that initiative will play out: The Biden Administration has officially launched the first CHIPS Funding Opportunity for the Americaswhich establishes the application process for “projects to build, expand, or modernize commercial facilities for the production of state-of-the-art, current-generation, and mature-node semiconductors.”

“First” in first opportunity funding is the key word here: At first, CHIPS for America specifically seeks to fund projects that align with the program’s “vision for success” that seeks to have a logical number of manufacturing facilities for Vanguard. and DRAM chip makers by the end of the decade, in addition to meeting specific production capacity targets for “current generation and mature node” semiconductors. The program plans to offer more funding opportunities for R&D and manufacturing equipment facilities at a later date. Applications for those programs will not launch until late spring and fall 2023, but the CHIPS Program Office is open to receiving declarations of interest from hopeful applicants.

The program also includes strict security measures on how the funds are used. Applicants awarded CHIPS funds will be prohibited from using the payments for share repurchases or to pay dividends, and the payments will be tied to meeting specific milestones. It will be a while before the first recipients of CHIPS funds are announced, but promising projects can start submitting applications on March 31, 2023. Want all the details? Verify the full CHIPS announcement for America here.