The Biden administration chose chipmaker Intel Corp. for a federal grant of as much as $8.5 billion and a loan up to $11 billion to expand semiconductor manufacturing at the company’s facilities in Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio and Oregon.
The announcement, made public on Wednesday, is the largest award so far from a $39 billion fund that Congress appropriated in 2022 under the CHIPS and Science Act, which is intended to break the dependence on chip suppliers primarily based in Taiwan and South Korea for American missiles, spy satellites, telecom gear and medical devices.
The grant and loan “will help incentivize Intel to make over $100 billion worth of investments in manufacturing,” Commerce Secretary Gina M. Raimondo told reporters Tuesday. “It’s incredible how much private capital our grant is drawing forward, and this will mark one of the largest investments ever in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing.”
