The CHIPS Act: money for chip manufacturing in the United States
On 9 August 2022 the CHIPS and Science Act became law: the CHIPS for America Fund received 50 billion dollars for fiscal years 2022-2026, 39 billion of it for semiconductor manufacturing incentives, and investment in plants a 25% tax credit. A recipient commits not to expand manufacturing materially in China for ten years.
Why it matters
The United States began paying directly for semiconductor manufacturing, the chips models are trained on included, to sit on its own territory, and tied the money to giving up expansion in China.
The act does not state the totals usually quoted: 52.7, 39 and 11 billion occur nowhere in the text and are sums of yearly appropriations. The CHIPS for America Fund: 24 billion for 2022, then 7, 6.3, 6.1 and 6.6 billion - 50 billion in all, of which 19 billion in 2022 and 5 billion a year after for manufacturing incentives, that is 39 billion, and the other 11 billion for research and development; up to 6 billion of the 2022 amount may go to loans and guarantees capped at 75 billion of principal. Separate funds: defence, 400 million a year for five years; international technology security, 100 million a year; workforce and education for the NSF, 25, 25, 50, 50 and 50 million; with the main fund that makes 52.7 billion. The tax credit is section 107, for construction begun by the end of 2026. Section 103: a ten-year bar on material expansion of capacity in China or another foreign country of concern, except existing production of mature chips, for logic 28 nanometres or older.