Intel Officially Manages To Get A New Financial Lifeline Through CHIPS Act, Gets Additional $3 Billion In Direct Funding

Today’s announcement reflects the continued progress of Intel Foundry, which brings together all the components customers need to design and manufacture chips at the leading edge. Intel Foundry is nearing completion of a historic pace of design and process technology innovation with its most advanced technology – Intel 18A – on track for production in 2025. The company, which develops and produces many of the world’s most advanced chips and semiconductor packaging technologies, is advancing critical semiconductor manufacturing and research and development projects at its sites in Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio, and Oregon.

Intel has a long-standing history of working closely with the Department of Defense. In 2020, Intel was awarded the second phase of the SHIP program, allowing the U.S. government to access Intel’s advanced semiconductor packaging capabilities in Arizona and Oregon and leverage Intel’s substantial annual R&D and manufacturing investments. In 2023, Intel successfully delivered the first multi-chip package prototypes under the SHIP program, a significant achievement in ensuring access to cutting-edge microelectronics packaging and paving the way for modernization for the DoD.

In 2021, Intel was awarded an agreement to provide commercial foundry services for multiple phases of the DoD’s RAMP-C program, which aims to leverage U.S.-based commercial semiconductor foundries to produce custom and integrated circuits for critical DoD systems. Since then, Intel has successfully on boarded several defense industrial base (DIB) customers, including Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Microsoft, IBM, Nvidia, and others, and has made progress in developing early DIB product prototypes. This progress showcases the readiness of Intel’s 18A process technology, intellectual property, and ecosystem solutions for high-volume manufacturing.

[Journalist Note]: Team Blue has figured out a way to escape the financial mess the firm has found itself in over the past few quarters. And interestingly, the Biden administration has come into play, rescuing the US chipmaker through new grants and business deals. Just recently, we talked about how Intel was convincing US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to encourage major US tech firms to deal with them for their chip needs rather than approaching the Taiwan giant TSMC, so the firm is quite active when it comes to improving its industry reputation.

With new grants in play, it will be interesting to see whether Intel decides to sell off business assets, as rumored previously. The firm is implementing a widespread cost-cutting policy, which includes halting multiple billion-dollar projects and handing over certain parts of its divisions to new parties. Team Blue still has a long way to go to get out of the mess, and the firm might have found a new lifeline.