The $6.1 billion for Micron, to shore up the domestic supply of semiconductors, comes after a key union endorsement and passage of an aid bill central to the president’s foreign policy agenda.
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President Biden on a Micron tour in 2022. The funding for Micron stems from the CHIPS Act, which a bipartisan group of lawmakers passed in 2022 to re-establish the United States as a leader in the production of semiconductors.
President Biden, seeking to capitalize on a week of favorable political developments, plans to announce on Thursday that his administration will provide up to $6.1 billion in grants to Micron Technology, the latest federal award intended to shore up the nation’s domestic supply of semiconductors.
Micron will use the grants to help build two leading-edge chip manufacturing plants in New York and another facility in Idaho, Biden administration officials said before the president’s trip to Syracuse, N.Y., for the announcement. The federal government will also provide up to $7.5 billion in loans to Micron.
The funding stems from the CHIPS Act, which a bipartisan group of lawmakers passed in 2022 to re-establish the United States as a leader in the production of semiconductors, the tiny components that power everything from phones and computers to cars and fighter jets. The legislation gave the Commerce Department $39 billion to distribute as grants to incentivize chipmakers to construct and expand manufacturing plants across the United States.
Although the grant had been announced last week by Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, Mr. Biden’s trip will give him a chance to celebrate another victory in what is shaping up to be a successful week for him. On Wednesday, he secured the endorsement of the North America’s Building Trades Unions, largely because of his bipartisan infrastructure package. He also is fresh off signing a $95.3 billion package of aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan after months of congressional gridlock, reaffirming a central focus of his foreign policy agenda.
And while he is set to promote his efforts to bolster manufacturing in Syracuse, Mr. Biden’s Republican opponent in the 2024 election, former president Donald J. Trump, will be in court just 200 miles southeast, in New York City, as his state criminal trial on charges of falsifying business records continues.
Ramping up domestic chip production is a major goal for Mr. Biden, whose economic policy agenda largely focuses on strengthening American manufacturing and bringing back jobs that have shifted overseas in recent decades. Although semiconductors were invented in America, only about 10 percent of the world’s semiconductors are currently made in the United States, with the bulk manufactured in Asia.
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