House OKs CHIPS Act to Boost US Semiconductor Manufacturing
Semiconductor manufacturing and a host of other high-tech activities–from nuclear fusion to drone transportation to particle-accelerator research–stand to get a boost from a bill now headed to President Biden for his signature.
The House’s 243-187 vote(Opens in a new window) Thursday for the CHIPS And Science Act(Opens in a new window) followed the Senate’s 64-33 vote(Opens in a new window) Wednesday for this bill, which in turn came months after each chamber had passed different, larger tech-competition measures built around it.
The core of the $280 billion CHIPS Act–that’s short for “Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors”–is $52.7 billion in funding to promote the US manufacture of semiconductor chips and help alleviate the chip shortage. The money will pay for factory-construction incentives, provide workforce training, pay for targeted tax credits, and underwrite loans and loan guarantees to qualifying companies.
In June, for example, Intel pointed to that funding as a critical-path item for it to build out a planned chip facility in Ohio to its full $100 billion scope. Intel had announced plans for that location in January as a $20 billion venture to start.
The 1,054-page text(Opens in a new window) (PDF), as outlined in a 39-page summary(Opens in a new window) (PDF), also provides funding for research and development activities across a range of government agencies. Its cast of characters includes the Department of Energy (the bill will support research into energy storage, carbon sequestration, nuclear fission and fusion power, particle physics, and more), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (information security, digital identity, and support for domestic manufacturing), the
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