Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Commerce publicly announced two new notices of intent—as reported by Tom's Hardware, this involves the latest distributions from the CHIPS Act's $11 billion R&D budget: "$300 million is to be made available across multiple awards of up to $100 million (not including voluntary co-investment) for research on advanced packaging, while another $200 million (or more) is set aside to create the CHIPS Manufacturing USA Institute. Companies will have to compete for the funds by filing an application." The Act's primary $39 billion tranche is designated to new construction endeavors, e.g. the founding of manufacturing facilities.

A grand total of $52 billion was set aside for the CHIPS Act in 2022, which immediately attracted the attention of several semiconductor industry giants. Companies with headquarters outside of North America were allowed to send in applications. Last year, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, made some controversial statements regarding his company's worthiness of government funding. In his opinion, Team Blue is due the "lion's share" due to his operation being a USA firm—the likes of TSMC and Samsung are far less deserving of subsidies.The Department of Commerce is expected to start its competition for advanced packaging awards around March time, while the CHIPS Manufacturing USA Institute competition is scheduled to kick off at some point before the end of June. Tom's Hardware managed to make contact with a government policy expert—their statement explained "that these notices, though not a legal commitment, exist to give potential applicants time to prepare to apply. This is especially important for the CHIPS Manufacturing USA Institute competition, which envisions partnerships applying instead of individual organizations. These partnerships won't just include private corporations but also academic institutions, federal labs, and local- to state-level government per the notice of intent. That's consistent with other Manufacturing USA institutions, so there are no big surprises."

One manufacturing USA institute will be created, despite CHIPS Act terms outlining the creation of three establishments. The Department of Commerce policy expert believes that $200 million is better spent on a single operation—the alternative scenario being three smaller institutes having to survive on $75 million a piece: "Additionally, the sole CHIPS Manufacturing USA Institute can enjoy the advantages of centralization, making its semiconductor simulation models much better." The Tom's Hardware contact also proposed that additional competitions are due for announcement later on in 2024.