Tyler, Texas— U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told CNBC on Monday that the Commerce Department expects to release the entire $39 billion allocated under the CHIPS Act by the end of the year.
The U.S. Commerce Department is providing funding to semiconductor companies to incentivize them to build manufacturing capacity in the United States. The Biden administration announced the funding earlier Monday. Samsung Up to $6.4 billion is allocated to expand two chip factories in Central Texas, with about $16 billion in remaining subsidies to be paid out by the end of 2024.
“We are making good progress. We have done three of them in the past month. We will do more in the coming weeks,” Raimondo said in an interview on the sidelines of an awards event at Samsung’s Tyler factory. “I expect all of the funds in the CHIPS Act will be distributed by the end of the year.”
To date, award announcements have focused primarily on cutting-edge wafers, the most advanced type of semiconductor. Intel Up to $8.5 billion will be awarded to invest in projects in Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio and Oregon, while British Semiconductor Arizona’s plan will receive up to $6.6 billion in subsidies.
Raimondo said that now that the largest grants have been awarded, future incentive programs will focus on memory chips and investments in suppliers, wafers and chemicals.
The Samsung award, announced Monday, will help the company create what officials call an “advanced manufacturing ecosystem” in Central Texas, in which multiple steps of the wafer production process will all be completed on one campus. Raimondo said the Taylor plant will be twice the size of Samsung’s iconic factory in South Korea.
“This is a small manufacturing town, and there will be suppliers around,” she continued. “So when I say the entire ecosystem, it’s R&D, packaging, manufacturing, job training and all the upstream suppliers that will make America stronger and safer.”
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