The Creating Helpful Incentives to Protect Semiconductors Act (the CHIPS Act or the Act) was signed into law in August 2022, providing for a total of $52.7 billion in appropriations from 2023 through 2027. This article describes certain key developments in the period from passage of the CHIPS Act through the present day, including a summary of commitments by semiconductor companies to increase capital investment in the United States (possibly reflecting incentives created by the legislation). We also provide a brief survey of key grantmaking and investment activity by U.S. government agencies since passage of the Act. Finally, we discuss the Act’s likely future, as well as analogous policy developments in critical East Asian manufacturing centers.
The CHIPS Act was driven in part by concerns among U.S. policymakers that the U.S. semiconductor industry had fallen behind other modern manufacturing hubs, primarily in East Asia (e.g., South Korea, Taiwan, and, to some extent, China). See, id. at 2. In light of these concerns and others, the Act was structured in large part to provide incentives and financial resources to companies who wished to expand or develop semiconductor manufacturing operations in the United States. See, id. at 6 – 10. To this end, the Act earmarked up to $38.22 billion to provide financial incentives to build, expand, and equip U.S.-based semiconductor fabrication plants, as well as other manufacturing facilities, necessary for the overall supply and value chain (e.g., packaging). See, id. at 14, 16.
