Infinera has access to funds through the CHIPS and Science Act and aims to use it to construct a new fab in San Jose, California, and a test and packaging facility in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
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“The proposed CHIPS funding will enable us to better secure our supply chain and compete more effectively with foreign adversary nations,” said David Heard, CEO of Infinera.
The business plans to build a modernised fab and foundry in California, complete with a 40,000-square-foot cleanroom to increase its production capacity by a factor of 10.
In Pennsylvania, Infinera’s proposed est and packaging facility would help it design next-generation indium phosphide-based photonic integrated circuits (InP PICs), a vital piece of hardware for transferring large amounts of data in communications.
“Our unique photonic semiconductors address the increased demand for bandwidth from consumers while opening new markets inside the data centre driven by the explosive growth in AI workloads,” Heard added.
The Commerce Department said the proposed projects would not only increase Infinera’s domestic manufacturing capacity but also create up to 500 manufacturing jobs and 1,200 construction jobs.
“From AI to electric vehicles to telecommunications infrastructure, 21st Century technologies all rely on optical semiconductors like the ones manufactured by Infinera,” said Gina Raimondo, the US Secretary of Commerce. “The Biden-Harris Administration is taking meaningful steps towards achieving the economic and national security goals of the CHIPS and Science Act with proposed investments like this one, which will help us secure semiconductor manufacturing projects and create high-tech jobs across the country.”
Infinera becomes the latest in an ever-growing list of semiconductor suppliers to have taken advantage of funding available via the CHIPS and Science Act, which aims to shore up the US’ domestic hardware supply.
Infinera was the second firm to receive funding this week alone after Wolfspeed secured $750 million to build a new silicon carbide wafer manufacturing site in North Carolina.
The pair join other notable CHIPS and Science Act recipients, including Intel, which plans to build chip plants in Arizona, Ohio, New Mexico and Oregon, and TSMC which will construct a Fab in Phoenix.
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