US President Joe Biden’s administration has recently finished granting nearly $6.2 billion in funding for Micron Technology to cement a deal to boost domestic semiconductor production before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.
The Biden administration has worked on agreements with firms in the chip-making supply chain over recent months that also hope as part of his legacy before leaving office in the coming January. Once a deal is completed, funds can start sending to companies when they achieve a given milestone.
According to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, this investment is to help bring development and production of advanced memory semiconductor technology to the nation. On the other hand, this is also important in safeguarding the U.S’ leadership on artificial intelligence and protecting American economic and national security.
In this case, the deal with Micron in particular supports the company’s two-decade plan, including investments of some $100 billion in New York and $25 billion in Idaho. That is not only expected to create some 20,000 jobs but also to help the U.S. increase its share of advanced memory manufacturing.
In addition to the efforts in New York and Idaho, the Commerce Department also has signed a preliminary agreement with Micron for another investment up to $275 million to expand and modernize its facility at Virginia.
Those actions aim to support a stable supply of Micron’s technology relating to chips that are key to the automotive and industrial markets.
In recent years, the U.S has been trying to reduce its dependence on China or other countries for semiconductors by building up a reliable domestic supply of chips, which can use in advanced technologies ranging from personal computing to artificial intelligence (AI), including new AI models.
Micro Technology is the only US-based manufacturer of memory, give it a unique position in the effort to bring leading-edge memory manufacturing to the US.
In the past, the United States used to produce nearly 40% of the world’s chips. However, this proportion is now around 10% and none of them are the most advanced chips.
The Micron investment is the latest funding to come under the CHIPS and Science Act, a major law approved by Biden’s term in an effort to strengthen the U.S semiconductor industry.
