An announcement made this week by the US Department of Commerce detailed the agency’s plans for distribution of $50 billion appropriated under the CHIPS and Science Act, which was signed into law last month by President Joe Biden.
The Act is aimed primarily at revitalizing the domestic semiconductor manufacturing industry in the US, which has seen its market share slip drastically in recent years due to high operational costs compared to its East Asian competition.
About $28 billion of the CHIPS and Science Act funds earmarked for the Commerce Department will go toward underwriting expansions of existing semiconductor manufacturing facilities or the construction of new ones. Specifically, the funds will be made available as loan guarantees and subsidies or grants and cooperative agreements, and the department has said that it hopes to focus more on loan underwriting in order to maximize how far the CHIPS Act dollars will go.
