TSMC’s Chips Act Award Finalized by US, With Funds Coming This Year

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(Bloomberg) -- The Biden administration finalized its Chips Act incentive awards for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., marking a major milestone for a program meant to bring semiconductor production back to US soil.

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TSMC will get $6.6 billion in grants as part of the contract, the Department of Commerce said in a statement Friday. Though the amount was disclosed earlier this year as part of a preliminary agreement, the deal is now legally binding — making it the first major Chips Act award to reach this stage.

The chipmaker, which is also taking up to $5 billion in loans, will get at least $1 billion of the total this year because it has already achieved some of the benchmarks required, administration officials said.

Finalizing the agreement with TSMC guarantees that cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing will return to the US, bringing essential capabilities onshore, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a briefing.

“This is some of the most sought-after technology on the planet,” she said. “It’s impossible to overestimate how significant this is for America’s national and economic security.”

Earlier: TSMC and GlobalFoundries Finish Talks Over Chips Act Awards

More deals will be completed in the coming weeks, solidifying one of the country’s biggest pieces of industrial policy in decades and a signature piece of legislation for the outgoing Biden administration.

The Chips and Science Act set aside $39 billion in grants, $75 billion in loans and loan guarantees, and 25% tax credits — all to lure semiconductor manufacturing to the US after decades of production shifting to Asia. The vast majority of the funds have been allocated, but only a portion of those awards are set in stone, including one small grant announced in September.

In TSMC’s case, the money will help underwrite more than $65 billion of spending to build a three-factory complex north of Phoenix. More funds will be released when the company hits additional targets. The project is the largest-ever foreign direct investment by a company in a new site, according to the Commerce Department.

Officials are under increasing pressure to wrap up talks and get money out the door. Business groups in four states with projects in line for Chips Act funding — Ohio, New Mexico, Oregon and New York — pushed for the immediate release of that money in a recent letter to President Joe Biden, the Columbus Dispatch reported.