Dive Brief:
- The Department of Commerce will provide up to $75 million in CHIPS and Science Act funding to semiconductor supplier Entegris, per several press releases.
- The funds will support Entegris’ construction of a $600 million 100,000-square-foot manufacturing center in Colorado Springs, expected to start operations in early 2025.
- The facility, which first broke ground in June 2023, is expected to create nearly 600 direct manufacturing jobs over a period of several years and approximately 500 construction jobs by 2030.
Dive Insight:
Entegris is among the many technology companies the federal government is banking on to boost its semiconductor supply chain with unique approaches to chip materials manufacturing.
The new facility will produce front opening unified pods, which are currently entirely produced abroad. The highly specialized containers secure semiconductor wafers while they are handled and transported during the manufacturing process.
The internal transportation systems have helped customers such as Intel, TSMC, Micron and GlobalFoundries.
Entegris also plans to claim the Department of the Treasury’s investment tax credit, which is expected to cover up to 25% of qualified capital expenditures.
The Colorado Springs facility is being built in multiple phases: the first to support production of front opening unified pods and liquid filter membranes, The second phase will support the production of advanced liquid filters and purifiers as well as fluid handling solutions.
In addition to the manufacturing center, Entegris is also committed to further expanding its research and development capabilities in the U.S. by the end of the decade, according to the press release.
For its workforce, Entegris is partnering with Arizona-based Microchip Technology, which received $90 million in CHIPS funding to build a fabrication facility in Colorado Springs in January. Entegris is also working with local educational institutions, nearby Army and Air Force bases and veteran service organizations with the goal of recruiting 50% of its workforce from veterans and military families. The Colorado Springs facility will also serve as a Military Center of Excellence.
So far, the CHIPS Act has announced up to $29.5 billion in proposed funding to onshore the country’s semiconductor supply chain. The Entegris announcement marks the eleventh preliminary memorandum of terms under the Act, following Rocket Lab’s $24 million funding earlier this month to expand its New Mexico solar cell production facility.
Entegris has domestic manufacturing facilities in Texas, California, Illinois, Oregon, Connecticut, Minnesota and Massachusetts, according to its 2023 annual report.
The chips supplier has been expanding outside of the U.S. as well. Entegris opened up its largest manufacturing plant in Kaohsiung Science Park in Taiwan in May 2023 as well as a research center in South Korea.
