The U.S. Department of Commerce issued two notices of intent today concerning the distribution of the $11 billion R&D money from the CHIPS Act. $300 million is to be made available across multiple awards of up to $100 million (not including voluntary co-investment) for research on advanced packaging, while another $200 million or more is set aside to create the CHIPS Manufacturing USA Institute. Companies will have to compete for the funds by filing an application.
Although the CHIPS Act has $52 billion of funding behind it, it's largely divided into two categories: $39 billion goes directly towards fab construction, while the remaining $11 billion is to be spent on R&D. The two notices of intent take at least a combined $500 million out of the $11 billion R&D budget. That's just 4% of the R&D funds and just under 1% of all CHIPS Act funding, though those values could go up as the $200 million for the CHIPS Manufacturing USA Institute is a minimum amount.
