The U.S. Commerce Department announced it has signed letters of intent to provide $874 million in federal incentives to seven technology companies under the CHIPS and Science Act, with a notable condition: the government will take a minority, non-controlling equity stake in each firm as a prerequisite for receiving the funds.

According to a Wednesday press release, the incentives are designed to "support innovative domestic technologies to dramatically increase the performance of the world's fastest computers, secure domestic supply chains, and strengthen U.S. leadership in the compute supply chain."

The CHIPS and Science Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022.

The seven recipient companies — GlobalFoundries, Kepler, Multibeam Corporation, Extropic, Thintronics, OBSIDIA Semiconductors, and Aeluma — "have entered into letters of intent with the Department of Commerce, and there will be further diligence and approval by the Department before final awards are made," the announcement states. The document is published on the National Institute of Standards and Technology website.

"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," the release adds.

The equity-stake requirement marks a departure from earlier CHIPS Act awards, which were structured primarily as direct grants and cooperative agreements without government ownership positions. Prior CHIPS Act funding announcements have directed tens of billions of dollars toward large-scale semiconductor manufacturing facilities at companies such as Intel, TSMC, and Samsung, whereas this round targets earlier-stage R&D across emerging compute technologies.

The department outlined the planned funding allocations for each company if the government proceeds with the awards:

• GlobalFoundries — up to $300 million to accelerate domestic R&D of co-packaged optics by two to three years. "By integrating photonics directly alongside AI processors, this technology will deliver ultra-fast, energy-efficient computing to reinforce U.S. leadership in AI infrastructure."

• Kepler — up to $245 million for R&D to develop in the U.S. "a new class of high-performance AI memory technology enabled by innovative 3D and ferroelectric technologies."

• Multibeam Corporation — up to $140 million to develop advanced packaging technology "to assemble and stack multiple chips and connect them with thousands of wires, which will enable more advanced systems necessary for AI and other advanced computing applications."

• Extropic — up to $75 million to develop thermodynamic sampling units (TSUs) "which use natural thermal fluctuations to probabilistically solve complex problems spanning simulation, optimization, and AI, at a fraction of the energy consumed by conventional computing approaches."

• Thintronics — up to $50 million to develop "ultra-low-loss inter-layer dielectrics required for next-generation semiconductor interconnects and advanced packaging in high-performance compute, AI, and networking infrastructure."

• OBSIDIA Semiconductors — up to $34 million for R&D to deliver "non-invasive counterfeit and malicious component identification systems to ensure provenance and traceability in secure supply chains for AI and advanced electronics."

• Aeluma — up to $30 million to develop "large diameter, indium-phosphide-free substrate technology used to fabricate photodetectors and lasers for AI photonic interconnects."

Several of the funded projects target bottlenecks in AI compute infrastructure — including memory bandwidth, chip-to-chip interconnects, and energy-efficient processing — areas that have become priorities for semiconductor investment as demand for AI training and inference capacity has surged. Among the recipients, GlobalFoundries is a publicly traded, established chipmaker, while the other six are smaller or earlier-stage firms.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick framed the initiative within the broader goals of the Trump Administration. "With today's compute supply chain investments, the Trump Administration is accelerating America's innovation engine," Lutnick said in a statement. "These strategic investments will enhance our country's domestic capabilities, create high-paying jobs and keep America at the forefront of the semiconductor industry."