The U.S. Commerce Department announced on Wednesday that it has finalized $1.5 billion in CHIPS and Science Act funding to GlobalFoundries (GF) – the world’s third-largest contract chipmaker.
The N.Y.-based company will use the funding to expand semiconductor production in New York and Vermont.
The finalized agreement follows a preliminary award announced in February after GF said it would invest $13 billion over the next decade into its manufacturing. The company’s investment plans – along with the CHIP funding – will support a thousand new manufacturing jobs and 9,000 new construction jobs at GF’s U.S. manufacturing sites for automative, smart mobile devices, Internet of Things, data centers, aerospace, and defense applications.
“The idea of strengthening U.S. semiconductor manufacturing has been five-plus years in the making. With bipartisan support, that idea evolved into the CHIPS and Science Act,” Thomas Caulfield, president and CEO of GF, said in a statement. “GF’s essential chips are at the core of U.S. economic, supply chain and national security.”
The funds will back key initiatives including expanding GF’s Malta, N.Y., fab with technology from its Singapore and Germany facilities and modernizing its Vermont fab to manufacture next-generation gallium nitride semiconductors, GF said.
A new campus will be constructed in Malta to “meet expected demand for U.S.-made essential chips across a broad range of markets and applications.”
The CHIPS and Science Act, approved by Congress and signed by President Biden in 2022, made up to $52 billion in funding available to incentivize domestic semiconductor manufacturers to bolster operations. As the Trump administration gets ready to take office in January, final agreements on awards have ramped up in preparation of the Biden administration’s departure, and as the program has received some criticism from the incoming administration.
Last week, Commerce finalized its first major award under the CHIPS and Science Act – providing $6.6 billion award for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s new U.S. fab.
