The federal government has awarded GlobalFoundries an additional $35 million to accelerate production of gallium nitride chips at its plant in Essex Junction, the company announced in a press release Wednesday.
The sum will be added to $30 million in federal funding that the company secured for the program last year.
Gallium nitride chips can handle high voltages and temperatures. China, which produces 98% of the world’s gallium, announced in July that it would restrict exports of gallium nitride.
In its press release, GlobalFoundries said the Pentagon funds would blunt the impact of those supply-chain constraints, but did not explain how. The company did not respond to requests for comment.
The plant in Essex Junction is the largest for-profit employer in Vermont. About 1,800 employees and 800 contractors work there, the plant’s general manager, Ken McAvey, said last year.
The gallium nitride chips will be used in 5G and 6G cellular communications in infrastructure, cellphones and vehicles, the company said.
“These chips will enable our customers to realize bold new designs that push the envelope of energy efficiency and performance of critical technologies we rely on every day,” said Thomas Caulfield, president and chief executive officer of GlobalFoundries, in a statement.
The funds come from the Department of Defense’s Trusted Access Program Office. The Essex Junction plant is a “trusted foundry” for the Pentagon.
Former Sen. Patrick Leahy worked to make the Essex Junction plant — or fab, as it is called in the semiconductor industry — the first to be accepted by the U.S. government as a “trusted foundry,” one of a group of semiconductor plants run by commercial companies using procedures to ensure that the chips manufactured there are secure.
A chip manufactured for an F-35 fighter jet at the Essex Junction plant, for example, could not be used by China to take over the aircraft. The federal government created the trusted foundry program when it realized that it would be cost-prohibitive to produce sensitive chips on a small scale at its own fab.
The company said it would use the money to buy tools for its facility in Essex Junction.
“This federal funding is welcome news, and will solidify our state’s position as a leader at the forefront of manufacturing next-generation chips,” said Sen. Peter Welch in a statement. “It’s critical we support investment in this industry here in Vermont and in the U.S. — both for our local economic growth and for our national security.”
