Washington — The US commerce department said on Tuesday it plans to award $50m to HP to support the expansion and modernisation of an existing company facility in Oregon that will boost key semiconductor technologies.
The proposed funding will support technologies that serve life sciences instrumentation and technology hardware used in artificial intelligence applications and other projects, the department said.
Congress in August 2022 approved a $39bn subsidy programme for US semiconductor manufacturing and related components along with $75bn in government lending authority and a 25% investment tax credit worth about $24bn.
The projects build on HP’s expertise in microfluidics and microelectromechanical systems with funding set to support manufacturing of silicon devices critical in life sciences lab equipment used in drug discovery, single-cell research, and cell line development.
Commerce secretary Gina Raimondo said the proposed $50m funding for the Corvallis, Oregon, HP campus “shows how we are investing in every part of the semiconductor supply chain and how important semiconductor technology is to innovation in drug discovery and critical life science equipment”.
The department said the technology will boost partner institutions, including Harvard Medical School, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Merck.
HP CEO Enrique Lores said the funding “provides HP with an opportunity to modernise and expand our facility to further invest in our microfluidics technology”.
The department has announced term sheets with 17 companies offering more than $32bn in grants and up to $29bn in loans.
It also made other major planned awards including $6.4bn to South Korea’s Samsung to expand chip production in Texas.
Intel won $8.5bn in grants in March while Taiwan’s TSMC clinched $6.6bn to build out its American production and memory chip maker Micron Technology won $6.1bn to help fund domestic chip factory projects.
All the awards have yet to be finalised and amounts could change after the commerce department conducts due diligence.
Reuters
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