Hunton Andrews Kurth Represents U.S. Department of Commerce in First Commercial CHIPS Award

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP represented the CHIPS Program Office of the U.S. Department of Commerce in connection with its first commercial CHIPS Incentives award under the CHIPS Incentive Program’s Funding Opportunity for Commercial Fabrication Facilities.

Pursuant to the award, the U.S. Department of Commerce will provide up to $123 million in direct funding to Polar Semiconductor (Polar), a Minnesota-based semiconductor foundry, to expand and modernize the company’s manufacturing facility in Bloomington, Minnesota. The investment  will support Polar’s efforts to almost double its U.S. production capacity of sensor and power chips within two years. This award catalyzes a total investment of more than $525 million from private, federal, and state sources to transform Polar from a majority foreign-owned in-house manufacturer to a majority U.S.-owned commercial foundry.

This historic investment marks the first commercial CHIPS Incentives award by the U.S. Department of Commerce to a semiconductor fabrication company under the CHIPS and Science Act.

The Hunton Andrews Kurth finance team advising the CHIPS Program Office included Partner Ben Cooper and Associates Chloe Kwon, Andrew Blasio, Gustavo Rodriguez-Villate, and Will Cox. Partner Tyler Maddry and Counsel Steve Wood provided intellectual property advice.

Hunton Andrews Kurth’s agency finance practice comprises a highly integrated group of lawyers in strategically important locations throughout the U.S. and around the globe, with over 30 years of experience working with governments, multilateral, regional, and bilateral development banks, and export credit agencies. 

In addition to our work advising the CHIPS Program Office of the U.S. Department of Commerce, we are proud to serve on multiple other agency panels, including for:

• International Finance Corporation (IFC),
• United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC),
• Build America Bureau of the United States Department of Transportation; and
• IDB Invest.