Dive Brief:
- The Commerce Department offered Amkor Technology Inc. up to $400 million in direct funding and $200 million in loans under the CHIPS and Science Act, the government announced last Friday.
- The funds will be used for Amkor upcoming $2 billion semiconductor assembly and test facility in Peoria, Arizona. The facility will be its first in the U.S., initially announced in November 2023.
- Amkor, the largest U.S.-based outsourced semiconductor assembly and test company, will package and test chips produced at a nearby Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. site, with Apple as the new facility’s largest customer.
Dive Insight:
The facility’s first phase is expected to be ready for production within three years, according to Amkor. The semiconductor company’s facility is expected to be over 500,000-square-foot and employ roughly 2,000 people.
Amkor also plans to take advantage of the Department of the Treasury’s Investment Tax Credit, which is expected to be up to 25% of qualified capital expenditures.
Amkor and TSMC, which also received $6.6 billion in CHIPS funding in April, have been working together on the project that will support industries such as high-performance computing, automotive and communications.
“The companies’ shared vision is to enable seamless technology alignment for customers across a global manufacturing network,” the Amkor release stated.
Arizona-based Amkor has been making gains with its external partnerships in recent months. The company also has a partnership with Germany-based chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG. On July 18, they signed a joint commitment to utilize decarbonization and sustainability strategies across their supply chains.
The company’s advanced packaging 2.5D technology is the final step in the manufacturing of graphic processing units and other AI chips, according to the Commerce Department.
“A lack of 2.5D technology capacity has been a significant chokepoint in the semiconductor industry’s ability to meet the rapidly increasing demand for generative AI products and services,” the agency’s release stated.
Amkor will partner with Arizona State University, Grand Canyon University and area other schools and community colleges for its workforce at the facility.
Arizona continues to be a hotspot for semiconductor manufacturing — the state is home to the most CHIPS funding investment announcements thus far. Across TSMC, Intel and Amkor, the state has seen roughly $100 billion in CHIPS-related project investments.
