The US government has awarded $500 million to SandboxAQ, a startup backed by Nvidia, to develop new chemicals and materials for domestic semiconductor manufacturing. This effort aims to reduce the country’s reliance on vulnerable foreign supply chains and address shortages in the industry.

Focus Areas

The contract tasks SandboxAQ with finding commercially viable materials in four key areas: replacements and fixes for PFAS (permanently used in chipmaking), catalysts to speed up chemical reactions, and new permanent magnets and batteries for chipmaking equipment that do not use rare earth elements from China or other foreign sources.

SandboxAQ will work on developing substitutes for PFAS and ways to break it down into less harmful chemicals when it cannot be replaced. If successful, the company will license the formulas out to industrial partners for mass production, and the Commerce Department will receive a royalty payment.

Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.