US Commerce Signs Preliminary CHIPS Act Funding Letters for Power Semiconductor R&D
DataNews Editorial Team
The US Department of Commerce has signed letters of intent with four companies for up to US$389 million in CHIPS and Science Act research funding covering power semiconductors and ultra-high-purity quartz. The proposed awards remain subject to final approval.
- The proposed US$389 million is preliminary research funding under letters of intent, not approved disbursements.
- Vertical Semiconductor could receive up to US$73 million for vertical GaN devices aimed at high-power computing systems.
- Its proposed 2.5 MW-class rack is a planned demonstration and should not be treated as operational data-center capacity.
- The initiative also includes power-electronics work for fusion applications and ultra-high-purity quartz processing.
- Potential benefits for AI data-center power delivery depend on final approvals and subsequent commercialization.
The US Department of Commerce has signed letters of intent with Vertical Semiconductor, Helion, Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) and Sibelco for up to US$389 million in research funding under the CHIPS and Science Act.
The proposed awards cover high-voltage power semiconductors, vertical gallium nitride (GaN) devices and ultra-high-purity quartz technologies. They are not final funding commitments. The US government plans to require minority, non-controlling and non-voting equity interests in the companies as a condition of the awards.
For the data-center sector, Vertical Semiconductor could receive up to US$73 million to develop vertical GaN power semiconductors for high-power computing systems. The company plans to demonstrate the technology in a 2.5 MW-class “superintelligent” data-center rack. The 2.5 MW figure is the stated IT-power class of a planned demonstration rack, not commissioned capacity; no site, customer, timeline or operating status has been disclosed.
The remaining proposed funding includes up to US$175 million for Helion’s high-voltage power semiconductors and advanced power modules for fusion energy, up to US$85 million for CFS semiconductor and power-electronics work for fusion equipment, and up to US$56 million for Sibelco’s ultra-high-purity quartz purification and precision-processing technologies.
If the awards receive final approval and the underlying technologies reach commercialization, the programme could support more compact and efficient power-conversion and power-delivery architectures for high-density AI data centers. It also extends federal support across parts of the US supply chain for power electronics and semiconductor materials. However, neither commercial deployment nor the commissioning of Vertical Semiconductor’s planned rack demonstration has been established.
The proposed funding targets power-conversion technologies relevant to rising AI data-center rack densities, where more efficient and compact power-delivery systems could become increasingly important. Any near-term data-center impact remains uncertain: the Vertical Semiconductor demonstration is planned, not operational, and commercial availability has not been confirmed.
- TechNews 科技新報 / ChineseSource →
This article was prepared by the DataNews editorial team based on the sources listed above.