[30] This led to Krach and his team's close collaboration in creating the CHIPS for America component with Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Mark Warner (D-VA).

[36] The law constitutes an industrial policy initiative which takes place against the background of a perceived AI Cold War between the US and China, as artificial intelligence technology relies on semiconductors.

[37] The law was considered amidst a global semiconductor shortage and intended to provide subsidies and tax credits to chip makers with operations in the United States.

$24 billion would go to a new 25 percent advanced semiconductor manufacturing tax credit to encourage firms to stay in the United States, and $200 million would go to the National Science Foundation to resolve short-term labor supply issues.

The bill also obligates NASA to perform research into further domesticating its supply chains and diversifying and developing its workforce, reducing the environmental effects of aviation, integrating unmanned aerial vehicle detection with air traffic control, investigating nuclear propulsion for spacecraft, continuing the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and xenology efforts, and boosting astronomical surveys for Near-Earth objects including the NEO Surveyor project.

[11] The law invests roughly $90 billion in strengthening and diversifying the STEM workforce through 33 programs, many of them incorporated deeply in the aforementioned semiconductor incentive, NSF labor supply, Tech Hubs, and DoD microelectronics R&D efforts; beyond those, the law authorizes $2.8 billion for standalone education projects, creates a Chief Diversity Officer position and codifies the Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES Network to serve as the NSF's main diversity, equity, and inclusion program.

The law expands NSF demographic data collection and workplace inclusion efforts, and help to grantees in caregiver roles and the fight against sexual harassment.

A large group of governors consisting of Pennsylvania's Tom Wolf, Alabama's Kay Ivey, California's Gavin Newsom, Kentucky's Andy Beshear, Michigan's Gretchen Whitmer, Wisconsin's Tony Evers, Illinois' J.

[45] Writing in the Substack climate and finance newsletter The Gigaton, Stanford MBA students Georgia Carroll and Zac Maslia criticized the Act for lacking incentives to add renewable energy to chipmakers' base loads, and reclaimed water and PFAS alternatives to their material inputs, and noted the extensive environmental impact of the chipmaker and data center industry was at odds with the output from the new research programs of the Act.

[62] In response to these concerns, on February 28, 2023, United States Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo published the first application for CHIPS Act grants, which encourages fab operators to use Project Labor Agreements for facilitating union negotiations during construction, outline their plans to curtail stock buybacks, share excess profits with the federal government, and open or point out nearby child care facilities.

[63][55][64] The application led to over 200 statements of interest from private companies within the first month and a half, looking to invest across the entire semiconductor supply chain in 35 states;[65][66] by June 2023, the number had reached over 300.

[68] Harris later reported that as a consequence TSMC and its non-union subcontractors had routinely engaged in alleged wage theft, underreported safety violations, and cut out various installation procedures that would have prevented costly repairs, delaying its projects.

[64] In February 2024, the antitrust think tank American Economic Liberties Project released a report evaluating the state of the semiconductor industry after the CHIPS and Science Act passed.

The Biden administration also gave out "Strategy Development Grants" to 29 consortia of businesses, labor unions and governments in areas that lost out, encouraging further organizational improvements before trying again to become a Tech Hub.

The trade group Semiconductor Industry Association, which analyzed announced investments from May 2020 to December 2022, claimed the CHIPS Act had led to more than 50 projects worth more than $200 billion that would create 44,000 jobs.

[126][needs update] In California, where the semiconductor industry was founded in Silicon Valley, experts say that it is very unlikely that any new manufacturing facilities will be built, due to tight regulations, high costs of land and electricity, and unreliable water supplies.

[134] In June, the selection committee was announced as Janet Foutty of Deloitte, John L. Hennessy of Alphabet, Jason Gaverick Matheny of RAND Corporation, Don Rosenberg of the University of California, San Diego, and Brenda Darden Wilkerson of AnitaB.org.

[136] By the White House's announcement date, the board of trustees was finalized as Robin Abrams of Analog Devices Inc., Craig Barrett of Intel, Reggie Brothers of the MIT Lincoln Lab, Nick Donofrio of IBM, Donna Dubinsky of Palm and Handspring, and Erica Fuchs of Carnegie Mellon University.

[137] As of October 24, 2024[update], Natcast was promised at least $5 billion from the Biden administration, and has established a Workforce Center of Excellence and "Community of Interest",[138] beginning its first $100 million grant competition in the summer, with a focus on improving artificial intelligence and making cutting-edge research cheaper.

[139] It has prepared its strategic plan for fiscal years 2025-27, outlining goals that range from scaling up multi-process wafer access to computer-aided design of chips to organizing the Workforce Center of Excellence.

[145] Arrian Ebrahaimi and Jordan Schneider, writing for the Institute for Progress, recommended the NSTC be structured with more centralization, work quickly and ambitiously to address market failures and externalities in chip research, and follow the management model of the similar Belgian company IMEC.

[150][151] In October 2022, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Baldwin and Representatives Sean Casten, Jamaal Bowman, Pramila Jayapal and Bill Foster sent a letter to Secretary Raimondo urging her to detail how the Commerce Department would enforce the law's provisions preventing companies from using CHIPS Act money directly on stock buybacks (they noted the law does not prevent recipients from using the money to free up their own funds for stock buybacks), as well as whether the department would claw back misused funds and resolve conflicts of interest.

[153] In January 2024, Warren and Jayapal wrote to Secretary Raimondo, Schmidt, and CHIPS Program Office investment head Todd Fisher expressing their concerns over who was staffing the main funds allocator, which reporting from The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News the previous summer and fall had found to be a small collection of elite bankers, consultants and lobbyists from Wall Street firms with potential conflicts of interest.

[15] One hurdle delaying the release of award monies is the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires that projects receive federal approvals before any funds can be dispersed.

)[106][107] In contrast, in February 2024 TSMC completed construction of its first fab in Japan, located in the Kumamoto region, in 20 months, by running 24-hour shifts, helped by the Japanese government and locals being welcoming to the influx of skilled Taiwanese workers needed for the project.

[167][168] Citing interviews of Charles Wessner of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and key congressional aides, and a risk assessment report from the United States Department of the Air Force, Austin Ahlman of the antitrust think tank Open Markets Institute criticized the plan, not least because it would take up more than 10 percent of the $39 billion in grants the Act designates for domestic semiconductors, as well as increase concentration in the domestic semiconductor industry.

The DoD later withdrew its $2.5 billion contribution to the secure enclave plan and gave it to the Commerce Department,[169] which allowed Intel to finalize the funding agreement on September 16, 2024,[170] amid concerns of its shaky financial performance and lagging customer outreach.

With assistance from the India Semiconductor Mission and a strategic technology cooperation between the United States Space Force (USSF), Bharat Semi, and 3rdiTech, the fabrication plant would produce silicon carbide, infrared, and gallium nitride chips.

[183] On July 11, 2023, after complaints from semiconductor lobbyists on CHIPS Act-related permitting issues, Senators Mark Kelly, Sherrod Brown, Todd Young, Ted Cruz, and Bill Hagerty introduced the Building Chips in America Act, which would designate the Commerce Department the lead agency for major fab projects, limit the scope of NEPA reviews for certain fab projects, and cut judicial review times for them.

Amid protests from Zoe Lofgren, the Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, CHIPS Communities United, and two dozen other environmental groups,[186] President Biden signed the bill into law on October 2.