Major chipmaker Intel will get more than $1.8 billion in federal funding to upgrade parts of its campus in Hillsboro, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced Tuesday.

Overall the company is being awarded nearly $8 billion in CHIPS Act funding. Congress passed the CHIPS Act in 2022 to spark domestic development and production of semiconductors, or computer chips, that power the electronics that have become critical to daily life.

“Because of our grant to Intel, they plan to mass fabricate their most advanced leading-edge logic nodes in Arizona and Ohio, they plan to conduct advanced packaging at scale in New Mexico, and fortify critical domestic research, development and technology capacity in Oregon,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters. “That means American design chips being manufactured and packaged by American workers in the United States by an American company for the first time in a very long time.”

So far the federal CHIPS Act has sent more than $18 billion to private and public organizations working to make computer chips in the United States. Officials from the Biden administration estimate the funding could help create more than 125,000 jobs across the country.

Grants from the state and federal government are unlikely to create a semiconductor hub where one didn’t exist. However, the funding can help planned projects move forward in places that already have an established ecosystem for the semiconductor industry.

Oregon has emerged as a hub for semiconductor companies with around 30,000 workers in the industry. Intel is one of Oregon’s largest employers, and its leaders consider Hillsboro to be the heart of the company’s research and development arm.

However, Intel has stumbled financially in the last few years after losing ground to chip makers focused on artificial intelligence. The company lost around $1 billion last fiscal year, and earlier this year said it would cut 15,000 positions from its global workforce.

Still, Intel has committed to spending around $100 billion in the years to come to expand manufacturing in the U.S. The Department of Commerce prioritizes awarding CHIPS Act funding to companies that have pledged private investment.

Intel will use the CHIPS funding to bolster current projects. Nearly $4 billion will go to production in Arizona and another $1.5 billion to Ohio. Intel’s New Mexico operations will get $500 million. Intel estimates the funding could support up to 7,000 manufacturing jobs, including 500 in Hillsboro.

“Strong bipartisan support for restoring American technology and manufacturing leadership is driving historic investments that are critical to the country’s long-term economic growth and national security,” Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said in a statement. “Intel is deeply committed to advancing these shared priorities as we further expand our U.S. operations over the next several years.”

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2024/11/26/intel-18-billion-federal-chips-funding-hillsboro/