WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration said Tuesday it would provide Hemlock Semiconductor with up to $325 million for a new factory, a move that could give Democrats a political advantage in the swing state of Michigan ahead of Election Day.
The funding would support 180 manufacturing jobs in Saginaw County, where Republicans and Democrats have been neck-and-neck during the past two presidential elections. There would also be construction jobs associated with the factory that would produce hyperpure polysilicon, a building block for electronics and solar panels, among other things.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on a call with reporters that the funding came from the CHIPS and Science Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022. It is part of a broader industrial strategy that the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, is supporting, while Republican candidate Donald Trump, the former president, sees tariff increases and income tax cuts as better to support manufacturing.
“What the CHIPS Act has allowed us to do is not just build a few new factories, but fundamentally reinvigorate our country’s semiconductor ecosystem with American workers,” Raimondo said. “All of this is because of the vision of the Biden-Harris administration.”
A senior government official said the timing of the announcement reflected the negotiation process to reach an agreement on the subsidy, rather than any political considerations. The official insisted on anonymity to discuss the process.
After site work, Hemlock Semiconductor plans to begin construction in 2026 and then begin production in 2028, the official said.
In 2016, Trump narrowly won Saginaw County and Michigan as a whole. But in 2020, both Saginaw County and Michigan switched to the Democrats against Biden.
