The Commerce Department highlighted that GlobalWafers' Texas plant is a significant milestone as it is the country's first facility for manufacturing 300mm wafers used in modern processes.

The Missouri site will produce a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) variant of 300mm wafers aimed at defence and aerospace applications where chips need to be less prone to failure.

The Taiwanese chip company revealed plans for the Texas wafer plant over two years ago as an alternative to acquiring German wafer maker Siltronic, which faced resistance from German regulators.

The Missouri plant was announced in 2021 as a partnership between GlobalWafers and GlobalFoundries. It will focus on older nodes rather than cutting-edge technology. This fab has a budget of $800 million, covering the expansion of a 200mm SOI wafer plant.

GlobalWafers' Texas and Missouri factories will cost around $4 billion, with the CHIPS Act funding covering up to ten per cent of the budget.

The Commerce Department claims these facilities will create 1,700 construction jobs and 880 manufacturing jobs. Although 300mm manufacturing plants are not as exciting as cutting-edge fabs, they are crucial for the US's goal to restore local chip production. Without 300mm wafers, there would be no chips, regardless of the number of fabs.

Building parts of the semiconductor supply chain domestically is also a strategic move to mitigate the impacts of a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, the global hub for the silicon industry. If the CHIPS Act and longer-term efforts are successful, the US could produce more than a quarter of the world's advanced chips within a decade.