WASHINGTON (Reuters): The U.S. Commerce Department said Tuesday it hopes to begin applying for $39 billion in government semiconductor chip subsidies by February to build new facilities and expand existing U.S. production. rice field.
In August, Congress approved a $52.7 billion investment tax credit for semiconductor manufacturing and research and a 25% investment tax credit for chip factories. This credit applies to projects that begin construction on or after January 1st.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimond told reporters, “We will be negotiating these deals once and for all,” and the companies will need to prove that government funding is absolutely necessary for production. “They don’t get more than they need to make these investments,” she added.
President Joe Biden ramps up efforts to make the U.S. more competitive with China, easing a persistent chip shortage that has affected everything from washing machines and video games to cars and weapons. signed a bill to subsidize chip manufacturing in the United States.
Commerce said on Tuesday, “Funding documents providing specific application guidance … will be released by early February 2023. As soon as applications are responsibly processed, evaluated and negotiated, awards will be and loans will be on a rolling basis.” Raimondo said he hopes to have some of the prize money awarded by the spring.
The ministry said it would use $28 billion to “establish domestic production of state-of-the-art logic and memory chips that require the most sophisticated manufacturing processes available today,” and that “mature current-generation chips, For suppliers in the semiconductor industry, including automotive, defense and medical device chips, who plan to spend $10 billion on new manufacturing capacity for “new and specialized chips.”
Chip’s bill also includes $11 billion in research expenses.
Commerce can use up to $6 billion to support loans or loan guarantees rather than subsidies, “which could be leveraged to support $75 billion in credit programs.”
In an interview with Reuters last week, Raimond said his top priority was to assemble a team to oversee the program and “develop high-level principles and guidelines for how this program should be run. A period of fairly intensive stakeholder engagement over the “next few months”. Raimondo said Tuesday that the team will consist of about 50 people.
