US President Joe Biden’s administration is in talks to confer more than US$10 billion in subsidies to Intel Corp, people familiar with the matter said, in what would be the largest award yet under a plan to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to US soil.
Intel’s award package is expected to include both loans and direct grants, the source said. They stressed that negotiations are still under way.
The US Department of Commerce and Intel declined to comment.
Photo: AFP
The incentives would come from the 2022 Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act, which set aside US$39 billion in direct grants as well as loans and loan guarantees worth US$75 billion to get the world’s top semiconductor companies to manufacture chips in the US after decades of production abroad.
Chips firms have invested more than US$230 billion in the US since Biden took office, and the administration’s goal is to establish at least two leading-edge manufacturing clusters by 2030.
Intel dominated the chip industry for years but has recently fallen behind Asian rivals Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co, which are building their own US sites in Arizona and Texas. Intel chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has been the leading industry voice lobbying for US government support of the sector, and the firm has said its plans are contingent on that funding.
Intel is building a US$20 billion facility in Ohio, undergoing a US$20 billion expansion in Arizona and investing US$3.5 billion in New Mexico.
It is not yet clear how Intel’s award would be split between grants and loans, the source said.
Loan terms are company-specific, the source said, as are benchmarks that the Commerce Department would impose to disburse the funding over time.
Intel, based in Santa Clara, California, has not said when its projects would begin commercial production.
The company has made significant progress in Ohio, a spokesperson said after the Wall Street Journal reported a delay from next year to 2026.
An administration official said that the timeline is in bounds with Intel’s initial projections and based on market factors, not award announcements.
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
Micron Technology Inc is a driving force pushing the US Congress to pass legislation that would put new export restrictions on equipment its Chinese competitors use to make their chips, according to people familiar with the matter. A US House of Representatives panel yesterday was to vote on the “MATCH Act,” a bill designed to close gaps in restrictions on chipmaking equipment. It would also pressure foreign companies that sell equipment to Chinese chipmaking facilities to align with export curbs on US companies like Lam Research Corp and Applied Materials Inc. The bill targets facilities operated by China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings’ planned acquisition of Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations has yet to enter the formal review stage, as regulators await supplementary documents, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said yesterday. Acting FTC Chairman Chen Chih-min (陳志民) told the legislature’s Economics Committee that although Grab submitted its application on March 27, the case has not been officially accepted because required materials remain incomplete. Once the filing is finalized, the FTC would launch a formal probe into the deal, focusing on issues such as cross-shareholding and potential restrictions on market competition, Chen told lawmakers. Grab last month announced that it would acquire
RSS