The U.S. Department of Commerce has outlined its plans to distribute the $50 billion provided under the CHIPS and Science Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law last month.
About $28 billion will be spent on expanding existing semiconductor factories or building new facilities – as loan guarantees and subsidies, or as grants and cooperative agreements. This will allow the department to focus more on loan underwriting, maximizing the effectiveness of the CHIPS Act funds.
Another $10 billion will go to domestic manufacturers who manufacture old chips and specialty products used in national defense applications, as well as in “critical commercial sectors” such as the automotive industry, medical devices, and information and communications technology.
The National Science and Technology Council, the National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology will receive $11 billion in organized distribution of Research and Development Tax Credit, also known as R&D funding. This will be used for projects aimed at boosting labor development, providing prototyping facilities, and performing a host of other upgrades for the U.S. semiconductor industry.
The Chips and Science Act (CHIPS), passed by Congress in August, is clearly aimed at transforming the domestic semiconductor industry in the United States, whose market share has recently shrunk relative to its East Asian competitors due to high operating costs.
The sources for this piece include an article in Computerworld.