Chips Act funding begins second phase

The Chips and Science Act, H.R.4346, began its second funding phase in June.  

The act establishes and provides funding for the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America Fund to carry out activities relating to creating incentives to produce semiconductors in the United States. It also provided funding to create the National Semiconductor Technology Center. 

In June, the Biden administration announced broadened eligibility for companies capable of using federal subsidies to increase chip production in the U.S. under the act which is meant to strengthen the supply chain supporting chip manufacturing. 

“We can have as many fabs [chip plants] as we want, but the reality is, we also need the supply chain — the chemicals, the material, the tools that go into those fabs,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said at a briefing as reported by the Wall Street Journal. 

In February, the Commerce Department’s CHIPS Program Office began “accept[ing] applications for the construction, expansion, or modernization of semiconductor materials and manufacturing equipment facilities for which the total capital investment equals or exceeds $300 million,” according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

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