A deep dive on the state of play from Bloomberg via MSN, April 1:
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has signaled he could withhold promised Chips Act grants as he pushes companies in line for federal semiconductor subsidies to substantially expand their US projects, according to eight people familiar with the matter.
The Commerce chief wants firms that won awards from the 2022 Chips and Science Act to follow in the footsteps of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which recently announced it will invest another $100 billion in US plants on top of a previous $65 billion pledge, the people said. Lutnick’s goal is to generate tens of billions of dollars in additional semiconductor investment commitments without increasing the size of federal grants, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing private conversations.
As he negotiates, Lutnick’s team has suggested that he could scrap disbursement of subsidies that have already been agreed upon, according to some of the people. At the same time, Lutnick has expressed interest in expanding a separate 25% tax credit from the Chips Act, some of the people said. That’s worth more to most companies than the direct funding awards. Major changes to the tax credit would require an act of Congress....
....MUCH MORE
