The Biden administration announced Monday it will provide roughly $285 million for a new semiconductor chip manufacturing institute.
The Commerce Department is currently seeking proposals for a facility that focuses on virtual models, or digital twins, of physical semiconductor chips as part of a CHIPS and Science Act plan to bolster U.S. development and manufacturing.
“Digital twin technology can help to spark innovation in research, development and manufacturing of semiconductors across the country, but only if we invest in America’s understanding and ability of the new technology,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement.
The investment is part of a Biden administration plan to dedicate billions of dollars in federal funds from his signature CHIPS and Science Act to bring semiconductor production back to the United States from Asia. Used in everything from cars and dishwashers to satellites and weapons systems, semiconductors were invented in the United States, but less than 10% of the world’s chips are currently produced here.
The first-of-its-institute will focus on “the development, validation and use of digital twins for semiconductor manufacturing, advanced packaging, assembly and test processes,” according to a White House fact sheet. Digital twins exist in the cloud, allowing researchers and engineers from across the country to collaborate.
The Commerce Department says such a system will help speed up innovation and reduce research and development costs. It will also allow a variety of manufacturers and regional communities to participate.
“This new Manufacturing USA institute will not only help to make America a leader in developing this new technology for the semiconductor industry, it will also help train the next generation of American workers and researchers to use digital twins for future advances in R&D and production of chips,” Raimondo said.
In March, the Biden administration announced it would give $8.5 billion to Intel to help the company make leading-edge semiconductors that are critical to emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing and 6G communications. None of the world’s leading-edge chips are produced domestically.
Biden’s CHIPS and Science Act, signed in August 2022, contains $52.7 billion in subsidies to bolster domestic semiconductor production, along with a 25% tax incentive for investments in domestic chip investments worth roughly $24 billion. The bill received bipartisan support in Congress.
In February, the administration set a goal for the CHIPS program to produce 20% of the world’s leading-edge semiconductors domestically by 2030.
