Oregon has several big high-tech companies manufacturing chips. (Getty Images)
A semiconductor company is on track to receive an infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars for a “significant” expansion at its Beaverton plant through federal CHIPS funding.
The U.S. Commerce Department announced Thursday it has signed a non-binding memorandum with Analog Devices, Inc. for up to $105 million in CHIPS and Science Act funding for expansions at its factories in Beaverton, Camas, Washington and Chelmsford, Massachusetts. The money is expected to create 500 new jobs across all sites, the department said.
“This investment will help us strengthen our workforce training and community partnerships, as well as expand our efforts to manage our environmental footprint,” Vincent Roche, CEO and chairman of Analog Devices, said in a statement.
Ferda Millan, the company’s chief communications officer, told the Capital Chronicle in a statement that Analog plans to make its “most significant” investments at its semiconductor plant in Beaverton.
“CHIPS Act funding will enable us to expand and modernize our facilities, scale our capacity to meet our customers’ needs across diverse end markets, strengthen our workforce training and community partnerships, as well as expand our efforts to manage our environmental footprint and grow our campus engagement to host numerous initiatives that support the Silicon Forest ecosystem,” Millan said.
She said the company is still working out details with the Commerce Department and doesn’t yet know how many jobs will be created at its plant in Beaverton. The company has a smaller facility in Camas.
The Commerce Department said the money would increase Analog’s Beaverton and Camas operations by 70% by expanding “front-end mature node semiconductor manufacturing for devices used in a wide variety of applications, including but not limited to automotive, industrial, and defense applications.”
As part of the agreement, Analog will try to reduce its use of solvents by using state-of-the-art techniques that are more environmentally friendly, the release said. It also will expand its partnerships with local universities and community colleges and create programs to support manufacturers and collaborators in the Silicon Forest.
In 2023, the company announced plans for a $1 billion expansion in Beaverton that was due to be finished last year. At the time, the company said it had about 950 employees at the site.
This latest funding from the Commerce Department is the fourth to an Oregon high-tech company under the CHIPS and Science Act approved by Congress in 2022. On Monday, the Commerce Department confirmed it was giving up to $53 million to HP in Corvallis to advance research into the technology behind tiny devices.
The Commerce Department has also awarded $1.9 billion to Intel in Hillsboro and $72 million to Microchip Technologies in Gresham.
Three other companies will also get CHIPS money, according to the Commerce Department. It plans to invest up to $79 million in an expansion by Coherent, which has a manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania; up to $10.3 million is pegged for IntelliEPI in Texas for expanding and modernizing its facility there; and Sumika in Texas could get up $52.1 million for manufacturing high-purity isopropyl alcohol that’s used in chip production.
Gina Raimondo, the outgoing commerce secretary, said the money — about $246 million in all — is part of a federal effort to “revitalize” semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S.
“The proposed investments we’re announcing today would support projects that will bolster semiconductor and materials production across the country and advance America’s technological leadership on the world stage,” Raimondo said in a statement.
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