Intel gets $8.5 billion in CHIPS funding for semiconductor expansion in four states

March 20 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden will travel to Arizona today to announce $8.5 billion in funding for Intel to expand semiconductor facilities in four states.

The funding provided through the CHIPS and Science Act will support new construction and expansion at Intel's semiconductor plants in Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio and Oregon, The White House said.

"Today is a defining moment for the U.S. and Intel as we work to power the next great chapter of American semiconductor innovation," Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said in the statement. AI is supercharging the digital revolution and everything digital needs semiconductors."

The investments will go toward constructing two semiconductor logic fabrication plants, or fabs, each at Intel's Chandler, Ariz., and New Albany, Ohio, facilities.

It will also modernize fabs at the Arizona facility as well as locations in Rio Rancho, N.M., and Hillsboro, Ore.

Intel said the investments will create more than 10,000 jobs within the company along with 20,000 construction jobs and support more than 50,000 indirect jobs for suppliers and support industries.

The company is also set to be eligible for up to $11 billion in federal loans and a tax credit of up to 25% on more than $100 billion in investments through the Treasury Department.

The administration touted the national importance of computer chip making in the United States, something that was exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic when American businesses were slowed and even stalled because so much of that work is currently being done overseas.

"Semiconductors were invented in America and power everything from cell phones to electric vehicles, refrigerators, satellites, defense systems and more," a statement from the White House said. "But today, the United States produces less than 10% of the world's chips and none of the most advanced ones,"

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the effort to capture more of the semiconductor market will make America safer.

"This announcement is the culmination of years of work by President Biden and bipartisan efforts in Congress to ensure that the leading-edge chips we need to secure our economic and national security are made in the United States," she said.