The program will use part of the $5 billion in federal funding for the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC). NSTC plans to award grants for 10 workforce development projects with budgets ranging from $500,000 to $2 million.

The center will also launch additional application processes in the coming months. Officials will determine the total spending after reviewing all the proposals.

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US President Joe Biden looks at a model of the Micron factory to be built in Syracuse, New York. Photo: NYT

The money comes from the Science and Chips Act of 2022, a landmark law that earmarks $39 billion to boost the U.S. chip industry, in addition to $11 billion for semiconductor research and development, including the NSTC . Global semiconductor companies have pledged to invest 10 times that amount in the U.S., according to Bloomberg.

New factories could be inefficient if they don’t get adequate investment in human resources, according to industry and government officials. Some predict the U.S. will be short 90,000 technicians by 2030, when the country aims to produce at least a fifth of the world’s most advanced chips.

Michael Barnes, senior manager of workforce development programs at Natcast – the non-profit organisation that operates the NSTC, said it was imperative to develop a domestic semiconductor workforce ecosystem to support the industry’s growth.

Since President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS Act into law two years ago, more than 50 community colleges have announced new or expanded semiconductor-related programs. The four companies that received the largest incentives from the act—Intel, TSMC, Samsung, and Micron—are each spending between $40 million and $50 million on staff development.

The U.S. Department of Commerce announced the 12th grant from the manufacturing program on July 1: $6.7 million to Rogue Valley Microdevices — supporting a new factory in Florida focused on chips for defense and biomedical applications.

(According to Bloomberg)