Samsung, Texas Instruments, and Amkor have finalized their CHIPS and Science Act funding agreements with the US Department of Commerce.
Announced by the department in late December 2024, Samsung will receive $4.745 billion in direct funding, while Texas Instruments and Amkor will receive $1.61bn and $407 million respectively.
The funding awarded to Samsung will support the company’s planned $37 billion investment in Texas, which includes the construction of two new chip fabs and an R&D center in the city of Taylor.
Samsung had originally been slated to receive $6.4 billion in CHIPS act funding, but last year it was reported that the company had decided to withdraw personnel from its chip fab in Taylor, Texas following repeated delays which have seen the company push the start of mass production at the plant back from 2024 to 2026.
The Department of Commerce said in a statement that it will “distribute the funds based on Samsung’s completion of project milestones,” though these have not been shared. All CHIPS Act funding agreements come with the same caveat.
Elsewhere, Texas Instruments will use its $1.61 billion to support its proposed $18 billion investment project that will see the company build two fabs in Sherman, Texas, and one in Lehi, Utah. The Sherman facilities are expected to produce 65nm - 130nm essential chips while the Lehi site will produce 28nm - 65nm analog and embedded processing chips.
The $407m that Amkor is set to receive - a $7 million increase on its preliminary funding agreement from July 2024 - will be used to support the company’s $2 billion investment for an outsourced semiconductor assembly and test company (OSAT) plant in Peoria, Arizona.
In October 2024, Amkor announced it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with TSMC which will see Amkor provide the chipmaker with with turnkey advanced packaging and test services at its planned outsourced semiconductor assembly and test plant in Peoria.
TSMC concluded its CHIPS Act funding negotiations with the government in November 2024 and will receive $6.6 billion to support the construction of three fabs in Phoenix, Arizona, two of which will produce 4nm and 3nm semiconductors, and a third will manufacture 2nm chips.
Commenting on the agreement with Samsung, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said: “With this investment in Samsung, the US is now officially the only country on the planet that is home to all five leading-edge semiconductor manufacturers. This is an extraordinary achievement, which will ensure we have a steady, domestic supply of the most advanced semiconductors that are essential to AI and national security, while also creating tens of thousands of good-paying jobs and transforming communities across the country.”
The Department of Commerce has also finalized CHIPS Act funding agreements with SK Hynix, GlobalFoundries, Intel, Micron, and GlobalWafers. President Biden has been attempting to secure these deals in his administration's dying days, with the CHIPS Act facing an uncertain future under a second Donald Trump presidency.
In the run-up to the election, President-elect Trump, who takes office this month, criticized the CHIPS and Science Act, saying that the government should have levied tariffs on the semiconductor industry instead of handing out grants and loans to chip companies.
