By Wen-Yee Lee
TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan-based Sino-American Silicon Products said on Friday its subsidiary GlobalWafers received just over $200 million from the U.S. CHIPS Act in June, about half of a grant the major silicon wafer supplier secured last year.
The funding was part of a $406 million award announced last December by the former Biden administration for the company's projects in Texas and Missouri to significantly expand U.S. silicon wafer production.
President Donald Trump’s administration had cast some doubt over whether the awards would go forward, saying that they were renegotiating some CHIPS Act grants. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in June that they may axe some of the awards.
GlobalWafers said in May the overall grant was to be disbursed in stages upon reaching specific milestones. It opened its new $3.5 billion wafer plant in Sherman, Texas, in the same month, a project announced in 2022.
As part of Apple's announcement on Wednesday of an additional $100 billion U.S. investment, GlobalWafers said it would partner with the iPhone maker to supply 300mm silicon wafers from its Texas facility.
Sino-American Silicon Products and GlobalWafers chairwoman Doris Hsu said on an earnings call that the partnership would help the company prepare for U.S. domestic market demand.
“If U.S. demand continues to grow, we will not rule out (accelerating) the next phase of expansion,” she said.
(Reporting by Wen-Yee Lee; Editing by Jan Harvey)
