It has been one year since the Biden Administration signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law. Over the past 12 months, dozens of new semiconductor manufacturing projects in the U.S. have been announced totaling hundreds of billions of dollars in private investment.
The CHIPS Act is on track to bring not just more chip manufacturing to the U.S. but thousands of new jobs in the semiconductor space as well as support numerous R&D projects for future chip process technologies and platforms. Despite all the momentum, no funds have been distributed yet.
The U.S. Department of Commerce said it has received more than 460 statements of interest across 42 states with proposals from companies looking to manufacture semiconductors. These projects will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, according to the agency.
“Next steps should include continuing to implement the new law in a timely manner and in close collaboration with industry experts, addressing the significant shortage of STEM workers facing the semiconductor sector and the entire U.S. economy, and ensuring the chip industry has open access to global markets,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO of the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).
Neuffer added by funding the law, its impact will unleash a potential for semiconductor innovations for numerous years to come.
The following are all the new semiconductor manufacturing projects enacted since the CHIPS Act was signed.
Intel
Intel Corp. has been one of the busiest movers since the CHIPS Act enactment as the company is seeking to become a foundry for U.S. and European-based fabless vendors.
Intel began with the expansion of its Arizona fab growing it from two to four leading-edge semiconductor foundries at a cost of $15 to $20 billion each. It also expanded its investment in its New Mexico packaging operations to the tune of $3.5 billion.
Intel followed these investments with another investment in Ohio with two additional fabs, called the single largest private-sector investment in the state’s history. Intel also has proposed a multi-billion-dollar expansion and modernization of its Oregon facilities.
Micron
U.S.-based memory chip maker Micron Technology has also been very active with investing in new facilities since the inception of the CHIPS Act.
The company broke ground last year on what it claims is the first new memory manufacturing fab built in the U.S. in the last 20 years with a fab in Boise, Idaho. The $15 billion investment is part of Micron’s planned tens of billion-dollar spending spree to increase semiconductor manufacturing for leading-edge memory.
Later, Micron said it would further expand memory manufacturing in the U.S. with an investment of up to $100 billion over the next 20-plus years on a megafab in Clay, New York. The first phase will be $20 billion by the end of the decade. The site will include four 600,000 square foot cleanrooms for a total of 2.4 million square feet of cleanroom space. It will create nearly 50,000 jobs in the state including 9,000 high paying Micron jobs.
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments (TI) is expanding its semiconductor manufacturing with five new planned facilities. An $11 billion investment in a new 300 mm chip wafer fab in Lehi, Utah. It is claimed to be the largest economic investment in Utah history.
The fab will be located next to TI’s existing 300 mm wafer fab in Lehi. Construction is expected to start in 2023 with production slated as early as 2026.
TI is also constructing four 300 mm chip fabs in Sherman, Texas. Total investment could reach about $30 billion and support 3,000 direct jobs over time. Production on these fabs is expected in early 2025.
New foundries
After much speculation, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. decided to build a new semiconductor manufacturing facility in Taylor, Texas with a $17 billion investment. The fab will be just a few miles away from its existing facility in Austin, Texas. The fab will bring Samsung’s total investment to more than $35 billion since 1996.
Leading pure-play foundry, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is also heavily involved in expansion in the U.S. with not one but two new facilities in Arizona. TSMC is spending about $40 billion between the two fabs and the company claims this will be the largest foreign direct investment in Arizona history and one of the largest foreign direct investments in the history of the U.S.
Meanwhile, foundry SkyWater Technology plans to build a $1.8 billion semiconductor R&D and product facility in Indiana, pursuing CHIPS Act funding. The facility will be located on the Purdue campus in the state.
Additionally, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) foundry Rogue Valley Microelectronics has acquired a 50,000 square foot commercial building in Palm Bay, Florida to serve as its second microfabrication facility. The fab will be used to make MEMS and sensors, employ 75 people and begin production in 2025.
Other new projects
Smaller investments are also taking off in the U.S. seeking CHIPS Act funding to bring future R&D and manufacturing to the country.
These include:
- Wolfspeed’s $5 billion on a silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductor fab in Chatham County, North Carolina.
- NHanced Semiconductors’ $236 million investment in an Indiana 100,000 square foot facility for advanced packaging.
- Everspin Technologies’ planned 10,000 square feet discrete and embedded magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) factory in Indiana.
- Trusted Semiconductors’ $34 million investment for radiation-hardened ICs for military and defense, space and industrial sector.
- Reliable Microsystems investment of $7.4 million in an Indiana campus that will create 61 jobs.
- Integra Technologies’ $1.8 expansion project in Wichita, Kansas, contingent on CHIPS Act funding.
- Also, in the state of Kansas, the $1.9 billion microchip plant from EMP Shield in Burlington will include four production lines and create 2,200 jobs.
- Applied Materials' $4 billion R&D platform in Silicon Valley.
