The US Department of Commerce has signed four Letters of Intent (LOI) with four companies to provide up to $389 million in federal R&D awards to support the development of semiconductors and their use within power delivery systems.

The funding will be made through the CHIPS Research and Development Office.

“The Trump Administration is accelerating American semiconductor innovation to enhance our domestic energy and power resources,” said Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. “These investments expand domestic research, secure critical supply chains, and create high-paying American jobs.”

The companies that signed the LOI’s include Microsoft-backed Helion, which will receive up to $175m in funding to develop, scale, and establish domestic capabilities in high-voltage power semiconductors and advanced energy power modules designed for high-peak-current pulsed-power applications in fusion power generation. According to the company, the semiconductors will power, control, and harvest energy from the magnets driving Helion’s fusion generators.

According to Helion, more than $100m will support semiconductor and advanced packaging research and development in Everett, Washington, with a further $80m earmarked to support R&D for next-generation semiconductor tooling, design, and process development.

“Building fusion power plants at scale requires us to accelerate the development of technologies like semiconductors that are critical to making fusion possible,” said David Kirtley, CEO of Helion.

“This award, combined with additional private investment, totaling $225 million, will allow Helion to develop and manufacture advanced semiconductors here in the United States that deliver the efficiency, reliability, and performance our systems require. It’s an important investment in both America’s semiconductor manufacturing base and the future of commercial fusion.”

Also receiving funding is Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), which is backed by Google. CFS is set to receive $85m in funding from the Department, which the company claims it will use to develop semiconductor technologies for robotic maintenance systems that improve ARC plant performance and to improve radio-frequency power generators that support commercial fusion.

“This award marks an important opportunity to drive development of semiconductors and power electronics unique to the fusion industry,” said Bob Mumgaard, CEO and co-founder of Commonwealth Fusion Systems. “These innovations will be a vital part of our global effort to deploy commercial fusion.”

CFS’s proposed ARC commercial fusion reactor is expected to deliver electricity to the grid in the early 2030s. The ARC plant has a planned capacity of 400MW, and is tied to a long-term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Google, which last year committed to offtake 200MW from the plant upon its completion.

The other companies to receive funding are Vertical Semiconductor and Sibelco.

Co-founded by Josh Perozek, Cynthia Liao, and Tomas Palacios in 2024, Vertical Semiconductor is an MIT spin-out based on research undertaken by MIT’s Palacios Group – a ‘world-leading’ gallium nitride (GaN) research lab.

The company will receive up to $73m from the Department in order to advance its GaN power semiconductors. The company said the R&D funds will enable more efficient, compact power delivery for advanced computing.

The final company to receive funding was Sibelco, an industrial minerals and materials firm that specializes in mining and processing silica, a key semiconductor component. The company will receive up to $56m to develop next-generation purification and finishing technologies for ultra-high-purity quartz used in crystal growth crucibles, processing glassware, and other hardware throughout the semiconductor value chain.

The company said the R&D support will enable it to develop next-generation ultra-high-purity quartz materials to strengthen domestic semiconductor supply chains.

The Department will receive a minority, non-controlling, and non-voting equity stake in each company as a condition for making the awards.