Asa Fitch and Annie Linskey of The Wall Street Journal tell their readers that the government’s $8.5 billion dollar grant awarded to Intel is the largest yet to come from the $53 billion Chips Act. They write:
The U.S. government is granting Intel up to $8.5 billion to help fund new chip plants in four states, the largest award yet in an effort to revive American chip-making overseen by the Biden administration.
The money will go toward new factories and expansion projects in Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio and Oregon, the Commerce Department said. Intel’s total investment in U.S. projects in the next five years is expected to exceed $100 billion, according to the department, which is overseeing the grants.
The grant money, set aside under 2022’s Chips Act, aims to fund a resurgence of U.S. manufacturing to counteract Covid-era supply-chain disruptions and address growing geopolitical tensions with China. Much of the world’s chip production has shifted to Asia in recent decades, leaving the U.S. with around 12% of the world’s manufacturing in 2020.
The Chips Act is part of President Biden’s experiment with industrial policy, where taxpayer funds are used to bolster some companies that the administration views as important for national security. […]
Whatever the challenges, U.S. executives and officials say the investments are crucial in a world where advanced chips play a major role in countries’ technological advancement and geopolitical power. Chips from Intel’s competitor Nvidia have underpinned the boom in artificial intelligence, leading the U.S. to place export controls on the most advanced of them, out of fear that China could use them in cyberwarfare and espionage.
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