Infrastructure Resilience Briefing — February 19, 2024

Executive briefing: The U.S. Department of Commerce announced a preliminary memorandum of terms on February 19, 2024 to provide up to $1.5 billion in CHIPS Act direct funding to GlobalFoundries for expansions in Malta, New York, and Burlington, Vermont.

Key infrastructure signals

Specialty process assurance. The agreement supports 300 mm and 200 mm lines producing automotive, aerospace, and defense-grade semiconductors that feed regulated workloads.
Trusted supplier commitments. Commerce secured long-term supply agreements for U.S. automotive OEMs and federal agencies, reducing exposure to offshore fabrication shocks.
Workforce expansion. GlobalFoundries will create 1,500 manufacturing jobs and fund registered apprenticeships, affecting talent availability for adjacent advanced-packaging suppliers.

Control alignment

ISO/IEC 27036-3. Update supplier assurance questionnaires to incorporate CHIPS-funded resiliency metrics and onshore traceability requirements.
NIST SP 800-161r1. Map the new capacity commitments into critical component inventories and adjust risk scoring for downstream product teams.

Detection and response priorities

Monitor Commerce’s final investment decision, NEPA milestones, and Department of Defense security reviews that can affect ramp schedules.
Trigger contingency sourcing analyses for nodes not covered by the term sheet—especially RF SOI and power management chips that remain capacity constrained.

Enablement moves

Coordinate procurement and engineering teams to align design roadmaps with the new wafer allocations secured through CHIPS agreements.
Engage state economic development partners in New York and Vermont on infrastructure incentives (water, energy) tied to the fabs’ expansion timelines.

Sources

Zeph Tech aligns semiconductor supply plans with CHIPS Act incentives so resilience, compliance, and sourcing teams act on authoritative funding milestones.