Samsung submits SOI to US Commerce Department

The U.S. government said that it has accepted more than 200 Statements of Intent (SOI) by businesses applying for subsidies in accordance with the CHIPS Act. Despite business confidentiality concerns, most global semiconductor companies investing in the U.S. have applied for subsidies.

“We have accepted more than 200 SOIs from potential candidates, which reflect broad interest from the private sector,” said the CHIPS Program Office on Friday (local time). The office did not reveal the name of the applicants. A company may submit several SOIs by the facility.

When the Commerce Department announced the application process and specific guidelines on February 28, it set guidelines to submit SOIs 21 days before the application. One SOI should include the location, scale, production capacity, production items, and investment amount of the chip manufacturing facilities planned for construction.

Samsung Electronics, which is building a chip foundry in Taylor, Texas, has been known to submit SOI as well. Once the main application is submitted, the company is expected to negotiate with the Commerce Department on subsidies and corporate confidentiality. Subsidies of the Chips Act will be paid out through pre-application, main application, and business due diligence. It is unknown whether SK hynix, who has not made specific investment plans public, has submitted SOI.

The Commerce Department has been accepting applications from businesses planning to build high-tech chip factories in the U.S. since March 31. The government will be investing 39 billion U.S. dollars in facilities, 11 billion dollars in semiconductor research and resource development, and 2 billion dollars in chips related to national defense, totaling an investment of 52.7 billion dollars.


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