The general outlines of the Secure Enclave project, in which Intel’s ability to produce advanced chips for defense customers in the United States was to play a key role, were formed back in March of this year. Now the American government has made a final decision to provide Intel with $3 billion in subsidies for these needs.
Image Source: Intel
This amount is less than the $3.5 billion that was initially discussed, but the press has repeatedly described the problems that US government departments have encountered in finding sources of funding for the program. Initially, it was assumed that $3.5 billion would be provided by the Pentagon, then it began to persuade the Department of Commerce to participate in partial financing of the initiative, and in the final version, the amount of $3 billion will be fully allocated by the department from funds provided for by the so-called “Chip Act” adopted in 2022. This $3 billion will go to Intel in addition to $8.5 billion in subsidies for the development of production infrastructure in the United States and $11 billion in soft loans. Such a distribution only strengthens Intel as the main beneficiary under the law mentioned above.
Intel’s new defense initiative will build on two existing ones. The first, called RAMP-C, involved the rapid creation of prototypes of semiconductor components designed for military applications. The second was designated SHIP and implied Intel’s participation in the packaging of dissimilar crystals for participants in the corresponding program. In this case, Intel achieved the location of the Pentagon because it is the only company of American origin that simultaneously develops and produces semiconductor components of an acceptable level of complexity. Intel will begin receiving its first subsidies from the American government before the end of this year.
Intel’s divisions in Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio and Oregon will be involved in varying degrees in the production of crystals and packaging of chips for the needs of the defense industry in the United States. The company simultaneously emphasizes that it can begin producing components using advanced Intel 18A technology as early as 2025. Since 2020, it has been testing and packaging chips for defense customers at its facilities in Arizona and Oregon, and assisting chip developers with design work. In 2023, the first chip with a multi-chip layout manufactured as part of this initiative was received. Since 2021, Intel has been participating in the RAMP-C early prototyping program for the US defense industry. Among the company’s clients, who in one way or another supply the country’s defense complex with their components, are Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Microsoft, IBM, Nvidia and others. At least some of these companies have already received prototypes of their products from Intel using 18A technology.