Biden administration awards $325 million to Hemlock Semiconductor’s Michigan factory

The Biden administration said Monday it would provide up to $325 million to Hemlock Semiconductor for a new factory, a move that could help give Democrats a political edge in the state of Michigan ahead of Election Day.

The funding will support 180 manufacturing jobs in Saginaw County, where Republicans and Democrats have been neck and neck in two presidential elections. There will also be construction jobs tied to a factory that will produce hyper-pure polysilicon, a building block for electronics and solar panels, among other technologies.

Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, while speaking to reporters, said the funding comes from the CHIPS and Science Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022. It is part of a broader industrial strategy campaign by Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee. , supports, while Republican candidate Donald Trump, the former president, sees tax increases and income tax cuts as better to support manufacturing.

“What we’ve been able to do with the CHIPS Act is not just create a few new factories, but fundamentally revitalize the semiconductor ecosystem in our country and American workers,” said Raimondo. “This is all because of the vision of the Biden-Harris administration.”

A senior administration official said the timing of the announcement reflected the process of negotiations to reach an agreement on the grant, rather than any political considerations. The official declined to be named to discuss the plan.

After site work, Hemlock Semiconductor plans to begin construction in 2026 and begin production in 2028, the official said.

Running in 2016, Trump narrowly won Saginaw County and Michigan as a whole. But in 2020 against Biden, both Saginaw County and Michigan turned to Democrats.

This story corrects the announcement date to Monday, not Tuesday.

-Josh Boak, Associated Press