The Department of Commerce has signed letters of intent to award up to $389 million in CHIPS research and development funding to four companies working on power semiconductors and critical materials, with the US government receiving a minority, non controlling and non voting equity stake in each company as a condition of the money. Reuters reported that the four awards come from a $10 billion fund approved by Congress in 2022, from which Commerce has made 19 research awards in recent months.
The largest award, up to $175 million, goes to Helion, the fusion company backed by Microsoft, to develop high voltage power semiconductors and advanced power modules for pulsed power in its fusion generators. More than $100 million of the work is in Everett, Washington, with a further $80 million for next generation semiconductor tooling and process development, and Helion said the federal money sits alongside $225 million of total investment including private capital.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems, backed by Google, receives up to $85 million for the electronics a commercial fusion plant needs at scale: silicon carbide power electronics, next generation radio frequency power generators that heat fusion fuel, faster reactor control electronics hardened against radiation, and work adapting AI hardware, including GPUs and TPUs, for plant use. Its ARC commercial reactor is planned at 400 megawatts, with Google committed to buy 200 megawatts under a long term power purchase agreement, and electricity to the grid targeted for the early 2030s.
Vertical Semiconductor, an MIT spinout founded in 2024, receives up to $73 million to advance vertical gallium nitride power transistors for AI data centers. The company says its program aims at a 2.5 megawatt AI rack that cuts energy losses by 30 percent and footprint by 50 percent, deploying its devices across the data center power chain. Sibelco receives up to $56 million to develop purification and finishing for ultra high purity quartz, used in crystal growth crucibles and processing hardware across the semiconductor value chain.
Read together with Thursday’s Infineon and Nvidia gallium nitride partnership, the pattern is consistent. The scarce layer in AI infrastructure is increasingly power conversion, not compute, and both industry and the federal government are now paying to own it. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the investments expand domestic research and secure critical supply chains.