So far, the rollout of the Biden administration’s CHIPS Act award money has primarily focused on providing major awards to major companies, with just four leading-edge semiconductor manufacturers receiving the lion’s share of the $33 billion allocated to this point.
However, with $6 billion remaining, the focus is now shifting towards sending smaller awards to smaller companies—dozens of them, up and down the supply chain.
The goal, according to government officials and industry experts, is to leverage the remaining grant money to attract as much private investment as possible, while boosting supply chain resilience and economic security by funding U.S.-based facilities in areas such as materials and packaging.
This means funnelling investments to both upstream suppliers – companies providing materials and equipment, for example – and downstream players, such as those involved in the advanced packaging that takes place after a semiconductor is produced. Some current mature technologies, also known as legacy chipmakers, will likely receive a portion of the remaining funds as well.
The question of where the remaining CHIPS Act award money will be directed is now a pressing concern, as the Commerce Department has announced recipients for nearly 85 per cent of its grant money and has committed to allocating the remaining funding by the end of the calendar year.
Hundreds of companies are still vying for a piece of the money that remains: More than 600 initially submitted statements of interest, according to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, but only nine have received awards so far.
While Intel, Taiwan Semiconductor, Samsung, and Micron combined will receive nearly $28 billion, and GlobalFoundries received $1.5 billion, four smaller companies – BAE Systems, Microchip, Polar Semiconductor, and Absolics – received a combined $392 million. Another $3.5 billion has been set aside for the “secure enclave” program, which will produce semiconductors for military use.
Given that the awards announced so far have already prompted pledges from private companies to invest more than $300 billion in leading-edge production, Schmidt expects “an enormous amount of secondary investment” to soon benefit the smaller suppliers.
Furthermore, Commerce has set aside $500 million in award money specifically for the companies whose projects will total $300 million or less in capital investment.
One such supplier in talks with Commerce for a CHIPS award is IQE, a U.K.-based company that produces compound semiconductor wafers for major companies like Apple.