Since the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act last August, eight companies have already received more than half of the direct funding planned by the government.
These companies have collectively received $29.34 billion in funding through the CHIPS Act for semiconductor factories nationwide. The law, a $280 billion package to support innovation in the United States, includes $52 billion in subsidies for semiconductor manufacturing and was passed last year.
These investments only concern the construction or expansion of semiconductor manufacturing facilities and do not include government funding for other chip research facilities.
As of this writing, Intel, Micron, Global Foundries, Polar Semiconductor, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Samsung, BAE Systems and Microchip technology have been the direct beneficiaries of the law.
These include projects such as Intel's factories in Arizona, New Mexico and Oregon, the $20 billion factory in Ohio, and Micron's $100 billion plant in Syracuse, New York, to build memory chips.
Intel received the largest direct investment through the CHIPS Act, with $8.5 billion for its semiconductor projects. TSMC received $6.6 billion in funding, while Samsung rounded out the top three with $6.4 billion from the US government.
The CHIPS Act aims to reboot the US semiconductor industry and begin competing against Chinese dominance in the chip manufacturing space. However, the amount set aside to revive the industry cannot be the only source of capital to bring the United States up to speed. technology“>according to the Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondosince the goal of the law “was never to provide the semiconductor industry with every dollar it asks for.”
Raimondo has said cutting-edge chipmakers have requested $70 billion in financing for chip manufacturing, more than the government initially expected to spend. He said the department is prioritizing projects that will be operational by 2030 and that some “very strong” proposals from companies may never get funding through the law.
The Semiconductor Industry Association says in an email to The edge The industry gained more than $450 billion in private investment after the CHIPS Act was announced, and expects it to grow even more.
Demand for chips has grown as generative ai models, which are primarily trained with powerful chips, have also gained importance. The United States wants to start supplying more high-power chips and even start manufacturing next-generation semiconductors. The Biden administration announced in February that it will also begin funding research into substrate packaging technologies, which would help create more cutting-edge semiconductors.
