The US Commerce Department has signed letters of intent worth up to $389M with four companies working on power semiconductors and the materials behind them, adding equity stakes to a grant programme that has mostly handed out cash.
Helion takes the largest share at $175M, Reuters and other outlets reported on Oct 22. The Everett, Washington fusion developer says the money funds high-voltage pulsed semiconductors and packaging lines meant to halve the electricity lost inside its machines, which would roughly double output from the same reactor.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems is set for up to $85M for chips that heat and control plasma, plus electronics hardened against radiation. Vertical Semiconductor, an MIT spinout, would get $73M for vertical gallium nitride parts aimed at 2.5MW AI data center racks. Sibelco North America would receive $56M to refine ultra-high-purity quartz, with a demonstration plant planned in North Carolina.
The cash comes from a $10B research account created under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act. It would be the nineteenth round of awards from the pool. Unlike earlier grants, each letter of intent carries a minority equity stake for the government, with no voting rights and no board control.
None of the four awards is final and contracts still have to be negotiated. Helion, which is racing to supply Microsoft from its first plant by 2028, said the federally funded work will not reach that machine in time. It separately raised $50M privately, lifting total fundraising past $3.2B.
The pattern matters beyond fusion. Washington is now paying for the unglamorous parts of the power chain, from the switch that converts electricity to the quartz crucible that holds molten silicon, at a moment when AI racks are pushing data center power demand up faster than grid capacity.
