The Department of Commerce will allocate over $870 million in federal incentives for semiconductor manufacturing. In return, it will acquire minority equity stakes in seven companies.
On Wednesday, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) revealed these financial awards through Commerce’s CHIPS Research and Development Office in a blog post. Seven companies will receive a total of $874 million under the CHIPS and Science Act. This funding aims to advance technologies in integrated photonics, which involves using light to process data instead of electricity. It will support research and development in computing architectures and memory for AI systems.
The Department will gain a non-controlling equity stake in each company, enhancing returns for taxpayers. GlobalFoundries, a semiconductor manufacturer, will receive up to $300 million. Kepler, focused on AI memory technology, will get up to $245 million. Multibeam Corp. will receive up to $140 million for semiconductor equipment manufacturing. The remaining funds will support Extropic, Thintronics, Obsidia Semiconductors, and Aeluma Inc.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick emphasized the domestic benefits of these investments, including high-paying job creation and maintaining America’s leadership in the semiconductor industry.
More details can be found in the complete report on TheHill.com.
Leave a Reply