Already a subscriber? Make sure to log into your account before viewing this content. You can access your account by hitting the “login” button on the top right corner. Still unable to see the content after signing in? Make sure your card on file is up-to-date.

The Commerce Department has signed letters of intent to hand seven semiconductor companies up to $874 million in CHIPS Act money, and in exchange the federal government will take an ownership stake in every one of them.

Some shit you should know before you dig in: Back when President Biden was in office, he signed bipartisan legislation called the CHIPS and Science Act, a 2022 law built to subsidize domestic chip production and cut down how much the US relies on foreign chipmakers. That same R&D money went out with no strings tying it to company ownership. Trump had previously criticized the legislation, essentially arguing that the US was giving free money to companies that had the funds to do this all by themselves.

What’s going on now: Commerce announced the letters Wednesday through NIST, covering research into integrated photonics, compute architectures, advanced packaging, substrates, materials, and memory for AI systems. The companies and awards:

• GlobalFoundries — up to $300 million to accelerate co-packaged optics, which puts photonics directly alongside AI processors, by two to three years.
• Kepler — up to $245 million for a new class of AI memory built on 3D and ferroelectric technologies.
• Multibeam Corporation — up to $140 million for advanced packaging that stacks multiple chips and connects them with thousands of wires.
• Extropic — up to $75 million for thermodynamic sampling units that use natural thermal fluctuations to solve complex problems at a fraction of conventional energy use.
• Thintronics — up to $50 million for ultra-low-loss inter-layer dielectrics used in next-generation interconnects and advanced packaging.
• OBSIDIA Semiconductors — up to $34 million for systems that detect counterfeit and malicious components in secure supply chains.
• Aeluma — up to $30 million for indium-phosphide-free substrate technology used to fabricate photodetectors and lasers.

“The Department will receive a minority, non-controlling equity stake in each company as a condition for receiving the funds to enhance the return for the U.S. taxpayer,” NIST wrote.

Nothing in the CHIPS Act requires the government to take stock in these companies. The law lets Commerce fund companies through grants, cooperative agreements, and “other transactions,” but says nothing about buying in as an owner. What opened the door was a rule change at Commerce itself, which now lets the department demand a financial return from anyone taking an award, whether that comes as stock, warrants, royalties, a cut of revenue, or licensing rights to the technology.

The precedent everyone points to is Intel, where the government took a roughly 10% stake last year against about $11 billion in subsidies, a move that drew criticism from some Republican lawmakers.

Despite all of this, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick praised the move, saying, “With today’s compute supply chain investments, the Trump Administration is accelerating America’s innovation engine. These strategic investments will enhance our country’s domestic capabilities, create high-paying jobs and keep America at the forefront of the semiconductor industry.”