The US government plans to reduce Intel Corp’s preliminary US$8.5 billion federal chips grant to less than US$8 billion, the New York Times reported on Sunday, citing unnamed sources.
The change took into account a US$3 billion contract Intel had been offered to make chips for the Pentagon, the sources said.
This spring US President Joe Biden’s administration said it would award Intel nearly US$20 billion in grants and loans, supercharging the company’s domestic semiconductor chip output and marking the US government’s largest outlay to subsidize leading-edge chip production.
Photo:Reuters
The US announced a preliminary agreement for US$8.5 billion in grants and up to US$11 billion in loans for Intel in Arizona, with some of the funding to be used to build two new factories and modernize an existing one.
The outlay was part of the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, a bid to boost domestic semiconductor output with US$52.7 billion in funding, including US$39 billion in subsidies for semiconductor production and US$11 billion for research and development.
On Nov. 15, the US Department of Commerce announced it has finalized a US$6.6 billion government subsidy for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona.
The TSMC award also includes up to US$5 billion in low-cost government loans.
In addition to TSMC, the commerce department on Wednesday last week said it has finalized a US$1.5 billion government subsidy for GlobalFoundries Inc for its production expansion in Malta, New York and Vermont.
The department has also allocated US$36 billion for chips projects including US$6.4 billion for Samsung Electronics Co and US$6.1 billion for Micron Technology Inc.
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