The White House provided nearly $20 billion in new grants and loans to support Intel’s US chip businesses as part of a crackdown on China’s dominance in crucial technologies, according to TRT World.
US President Joe Biden made the announcement during a trip to Arizona on Wednesday as part of a showcase of legislative gains in key swing states ahead of November’s presidential rematch against Donald Trump.
The Department of Commerce has reached a preliminary agreement with Intel to provide up to $8.5B in direct funding along with $11B in loans under the CHIPS and Science Act.
Wednesday’s announcement of $8.5 billion in direct funding is the largest of all grants awarded so far under the $52.7B 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, according to US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. The money would spur Intel to invest over $100 billion in what would be one of the largest investments ever in the US semiconductor industry, Raimondo added.
“We rely on a very small number of factories in Asia for all of our most sophisticated chips. That’s untenable and unacceptable. It’s an economic security problem. It’s a national security problem. And we’re going to change that.”
Intel also plans to claim a US Treasury Department investment tax credit of up to 25 per cent on certain capital expenditures, which will significantly increase the amount of financial support it receives from the US government. Biden’s National Economic Advisor Lael Brainard claimed:
Intel’s investment is an exciting part of America’s comeback story, with leading edge semiconductor manufacturing coming back to America for the first time in 40 years.
The White House estimates that the investment will directly support at least 10,000 new jobs in Arizona and Ohio, of which 3,000 jobs in each state will be in manufacturing and the remaining 7,000 are expected to be in construction.
