U.S. Department of Commerce

The CHIPS Program Office, housed within the National Institute of Standards and Technology, evaluates applications for semiconductor fabrication subsidies based on commercial viability, national security impact, and regional economic benefit. It issues binding preliminary memoranda of terms with specific milestones; Intel, TSMC, and Samsung are among the largest recipients. The office can claw back funds if companies fail to meet construction or production targets.

BIS maintains the Entity List and Commerce Control List through an interagency process involving Defense, State, and Energy departments. Controls target specific technologies — advanced logic chips, electronic design automation software, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment — based on their potential to advance foreign military capabilities. Additions follow classified threat assessments and are published in the Federal Register with a public comment period.

The Secretary of Commerce is a statutory member of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. The department's International Trade Administration provides staff support, analyzing whether covered transactions threaten US national security. CFIUS recommendations, including mitigation measures or divestment orders, are forwarded to the President for final determination.

EDA deploys roughly $1.5 billion annually through six grant programs: Public Works, Economic Adjustment Assistance, and four smaller vehicles targeting planning, technical assistance, university centers, and trade adjustment. Grants require at least a 20% local match. Post-2021, the American Rescue Plan added a $3 billion supplemental appropriation for travel, tourism, and outdoor recreation grants.

No. CHIPS Act funding is structured as grants, cooperative agreements, and loans — not equity. However, recipients who receive more than $150 million must share a portion of excess profits with the government if returns exceed projected thresholds by an agreed margin, creating a synthetic upside-sharing mechanism that resembles preferred equity without voting rights.

NTIA's $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program is the department's largest grant portfolio after CHIPS. It distributes funds to states and territories — not directly to companies — based on FCC broadband maps. States then sub-grant to internet service providers. The program is the federal government's largest single infrastructure investment in connectivity since the Rural Electrification Act.

Advanced logic semiconductors below 14 nanometers, chipmaking equipment from Applied Materials and Lam Research, electronic design automation tools from Synopsys and Cadence, and quantum computing components are the four most heavily controlled categories. AI model weights for large language models exceeding certain training-compute thresholds are under active regulatory review, though no final controls have been issued as of May 2026.