TAYLOR, Texas — The Commerce Department is on track to distribute all of the $39 billion in grants allocated under the CHIPS Act by the end of the year, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told CNBC on Monday.
The Commerce Department is providing money to semiconductor companies to incentivize them to expand their manufacturing production capabilities in the United States. The Biden administration announced Monday that it would provide Samsung with up to $6.4 billion in grants to expand two chip factories in central Texas, leaving about $16 billion in grants to be distributed before the end of 2024.
“We’re on a good run. We’ve done three in the last month. We’ll do more in the coming weeks,” Raimondo said in an interview on the sidelines of Samsung’s awards announcement in its Taylor facilities. “I expect all of the money in the CHIPS Act to be allocated by the end of this year.”
So far, awards announcements have focused primarily on cutting-edge chips, the most advanced type of semiconductor. Intel will receive up to $8.5 billion in incentives to invest in projects in Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio and Oregon, while Taiwan Semiconductor is expected to receive up to $6.6 billion in grants for projects in Arizona.
Now that the largest grants have been distributed, future awards will focus on memory chips and investments in suppliers, wafers and chemicals, Raimondo said.
The Samsung award announced Monday will help the company create what officials call an “advanced manufacturing ecosystem” in Central Texas, where several steps of the chip production process will all be done on a single campus. The Taylor factory will be twice the size of Samsung’s iconic factory in South Korea, Raimondo said.
“It’s a small manufacturing town, and around it the suppliers will come,” she continued. “So when I talk about the entire ecosystem, it’s the research and development, the packaging, the manufacturing, the skills training and all the upstream suppliers that will make America stronger and safer. “
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