(The Center Square) — The Biden-Harris administration has awarded semiconductor design company Micron Technology up to $6.165 billion in direct funding through the CHIPS Incentives Program.
The program is intended to help the U.S. “grow its share of advanced memory manufacturing” from about 2% to 10% by 2035, according to the Department of Commerce.
The CHIPS Incentives Program is funded through the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, which was passed to support domestic production and bolster America’s supply chain of semiconductor technologies— critical to ensuring the U.S. stays at the forefront of technological development, such as artificial intelligence.
So far, CHIPS for America has “awarded over $25 billion of the over $36 billion in proposed incentives funding allocated to date,” according to a press release from the Department of Commerce.
“Memory chips are foundational to all advanced technologies and thanks to the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, America is rebuilding its capacity to produce these critical capabilities,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.
Micron was founded in 1978 in Boise, Idaho, and has since grown into one of the world’s most prominent semiconductor manufacturers. The company makes DRAM chips, solid-state drives and other products for digital memory, storage, and semiconductor design.
“As the only U.S.-based manufacturer of memory, Micron is uniquely positioned to bring leading-edge memory manufacturing to the U.S.,” said Micron President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra.
The funding will directly benefit New York and Idaho, in particular, and potentially Virginia.
“This funding will support the first step in Micron’s two-decade vision to invest approximately $100 billion in New York and $25 billion in Idaho,” according to the release.
The Department of Commerce signed a non-binding Preliminary Memorandum of Terms with the company for up to $275 million to “expand and modernize its facility in Manassas, Virginia.”