Chips Act Funding Documents Due by Early February: Commerce

About $28 billion of the $50 billion in funding in the Chips and Science Act will go toward incentives “to establish domestic production of leading-edge logic and memory chips that require the most sophisticated manufacturing processes available today,” said the Commerce Department in an “implementation strategy” statement Tuesday. The money “may be available for grants or cooperative agreements, or to subsidize loans or loan guarantees,” it said. The statute’s incentives program will increase domestic production of semiconductors “across a range of nodes,” it said. “This initiative is broad and flexible, encouraging industry participants to craft creative proposals.” Commerce expects to make “dozens” of funding awards, with the total value expected to be near $10 billion, it said. Funding documents, which will provide “specific application guidance” for the program, will be released by early February, said Commerce: “Awards and loans will be made on a rolling basis as soon as applications can be responsibly processed, evaluated and negotiated.” President Joe Biden signed the Chips and Science Act into law Aug. 9 (see 2208090062).