The US Department of Commerce said yesterday it plans to award Amkor Technology Inc up to US$400 million in government grants to help fund the company’s planned US$2 billion advanced semiconductor packaging facility in Arizona.
The plant in the city of Peoria, which is estimated to generate about 2,000 jobs, is set to be the largest of its kind in the US and when fully operational will package and test millions of chips for autonomous vehicles, 5G/6G and data centers.
Apple Inc will be its first and biggest customer with the chips produced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) at a new Phoenix facility.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
Advanced packaging is a high-tech method of placing multiple chips with a variety of functions in a densely interconnected "package."
US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said the award would help meet growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips.
The chips Amkor will package "are foundational to technologies of the future that will define global economic and national security for decades to come," she added.
The department also plans to make available US$200 million in government loans for the Amkor project, which is expected to qualify for a 25 percent investment tax credit.
The commerce department said last year it planned to spend US$3 billion on advanced packaging. Congress in 2022 approved a US$39-billion subsidy program for US semiconductor manufacturing and related components.
The latest award, like others from the chips subsidy program, has yet to be finalized and terms could change.
In other awards, TSMC has won US$6.6 billion in expected grants after it said it would expand planned investment by US$25 billion to US$65 billion and add a third Arizona chips fab by 2030.
Semiconductor packaging provider Absolics Inc, part of the SK Group, is also due to gain US$75 million. SK Hynix Inc, the world’s second-largest memorychip maker, plans to invest nearly US$4 billion to build an advanced packaging plant for AI products in Indiana. Samsung Electronics Co is adding packaging capacity in Texas and Intel Corp opened a new packaging facility in New Mexico.
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