The Department of Commerce and GlobalWafers have signed a preliminary memorandum of terms, or PMT, to provide $400 million in proposed funding to advance semiconductor production in the United States.
The proposed investment under the CHIPS and Science Act would build new wafer manufacturing facilities and support projects of approximately $4 billion in Missouri and Texas, the Commerce Department said.
The investment aims to secure the U.S. supply chain, generate over 2,000 jobs across Missouri and Texas and improve economic and national security for Americans, according to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
Under the PMT, GlobalWafers would build and expand facilities in Sherman, Texas, and St. Peters, Missouri to manufacture the country’s first 300mm silicon wafers, which are used in mature-node and memory chips production.
The company would also repurpose a part of its facility in Sherman to produce 150mm and 200mm silicon carbide epitaxy wafers that are critical components for electric vehicles and clean energy infrastructure.
In a statement, Arati Prabhakar, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, noted that the initiative will produce the semiconductor wafers that could enable the U.S. to compete in the global economy.