US to give HP $50 million for semiconductor technology project by Reuters

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Commerce Department said on Tuesday it plans to award $50 million to HP (NYSE: ) to support the expansion and upgrade of an existing facility in Oregon that will boost key semiconductor technologies.

The proposed funding will support technologies that serve life sciences tools and technology hardware used in artificial intelligence applications and other projects, the department said.

In August 2022, Congress approved a $39 billion subsidy program for U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and related components, along with $75 billion in government lending authority and a 25 percent investment tax credit worth estimated at $24 billion.

The projects build on HP’s expertise in microfluidics and microelectromechanical systems, with funding established to support the fabrication of critical silicon devices in life sciences laboratory equipment used in drug discovery, single-cell research and cell line development.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the proposed $50 million in funding for the HP campus in Corvallis, Oregon, “shows how we’re investing in every part of the semiconductor supply chain and how important semiconductor technology is to innovation in discovery of medicines and essential 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 “gives HP an opportunity to modernize and expand our facility to further invest in our microfluidic technology.”

The department announced terms with 17 companies offering more than $32 billion in grants and up to $29 billion in loans.

It also made other major planned awards, including $6.4 billion to South Korea’s Samsung ( KS: ) to expand chip production in Texas.

Intel (NASDAQ: ) won $8.5 billion in grants in March, while Taiwan’s TSMC won $6.6 billion to build its U.S. manufacturing and memory chip maker Micron Technology (NASDAQ: ) raised $6.1 billion to help finance domestic chip manufacturing projects.

All awards have not yet been finalized and amounts may change after the Commerce Department conducts due diligence.