Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed the move during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, telling lawmakers: “We’re getting more value for the same dollars.”
“You will see that all the deals are getting better, and the only deals that are not getting done are deals that should have never been done in the first place,” Lutnick said.
The CHIPS Act was introduced by the Biden administration as a way to incentivise semiconductor firms to reshore production back to the US.
President Trump, however, has repeatedly threatened to throw out the Biden-era initiative, recently describing it as a “horrible, horrible thing” in a recent speech to Congress.
Instead of killing the act, the Trump administration wants to rework the CHIPS Act funding levels, with the Commerce Department looking to slash 16.5% of its budget, which includes cutting funds to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
“If the question is, ‘Are we renegotiating?’ The answer is, ‘Absolutely, for the benefit of the American taxpayer,’” the Commerce Secretary said.
Lutnick also claimed in his testimony that the Trump administration has commitments of more than $300 billion from companies wanting to bring production back to the US, “double the previous investment from these companies receiving CHIPS Act awards, without costing a single additional tax dollar from the American taxpayer,” he added.
The threat of tariffs has seen Apple, TSMC, and GlobalFoundries, among others, pledge billions of dollars to reshore production.
