The White House on Feb. 19 announced that the Commerce Department has signed a preliminary memorandum to provide $1.5 billion of direct funding approved by Congress via the CHIPS and Science Act to Malta, N.Y.-based GlobalFoundries. The company would use that money to bolster semiconductor production at three manufacturing sites in New York and Vermont.
President Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law in August 2022, making up to $52 billion of funding available to incentivize semiconductor makers to establish new manufacturing operations in the United States.
The agreement, the Commerce Department said, will “strengthen U.S. domestic supply chain resilience, bolster U.S. competitiveness in current-generation and mature-node (C&M) semiconductor production, and support economic and national security capabilities.” The GlobalFoundries plants that will benefit from the Federal funding produce essential automotive, communications, and defense semiconductor technologies.
“Semiconductors are the brain of modern technology,” said Vice President Kamala Harris. “While they are no larger than a fingernail and no thicker than a piece of paper, they are essential to every electronic device that we currently use – from computers and televisions to cars and washing machines.”
The new agreement – which still needs to be negotiated from its current status as a “non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms” – would create 1,500 new manufacturing jobs and another 9,000 construction jobs over the next ten years. The funding also will support local manufacturing workforce education and training worth more than $10 million.
In addition to the proposed $1.5 billion of direct funding, the CHIPS Program Office at the Commerce Department may make up to $1.6 billion of loans available to GlobalFoundries.
