Trump might probably come for these funds, however the CHIPS Act’s claw-back provisions “are solely to be triggered for ‘non-performance,'” Ezell famous—”that’s, the corporate not doing what it promised to do.” And though “in principle,” Trump might “use rescission or impoundment measures to go after duly Congressionally appropriated and obligated funds,” Ezell urged that appeared “unlikely.” A number of the NYT’s sources urged that “many” trade individuals “additionally expressed confidence that their authorized agreements with the Commerce Division couldn’t be modified” on the SIA name.

As an alternative of awarding subsidies, although, Trump desires to punish chipmakers who do enterprise outdoors the US, threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductor imports probably as quickly as April 2. However that plan could also be shortsighted, because the NYT identified that “attorneys and trade executives have stated that tariffs on chips themselves usually are not very efficient as a result of the USA imports few chips immediately.” As an alternative, chips are often positioned into digital gadgets and home equipment in factories in Asia earlier than the buyer tech is imported into the US.

Ezell advised Ars that he doubts Republicans can push Trump to cross some new model of the invoice, like a CHIPS 2.0. It appears “extra doubtless” that the Trump administration “sluggish walks a few of the disbursements or adjustments a few of the contract phrases,” Ezell urged.

Whereas firms do not essentially revenue or improve aggressive positions from taking CHIPS subsidies, withdrawing or delaying funding, Ezell warned, might hobble struggling chipmakers like Intel, which some commentators consider acquired a lifeline by means of CHIPS funding. In his 2024 evaluation, Ezell wrote that Intel’s monetary struggles mustn’t give trigger to disclaim CHIPS funding, as Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.) had as soon as urged, however to expedite funding to maintain a viable US chipmaker’s enterprise increasing within the US.

“When Intel is preventing for survival, the very last thing the Trump administration ought to be doing is rescinding financing that’s important to Intel’s restoration and enlargement technique, or to withdraw financing that’s very important to different semiconductor firms’ important enlargement of US operations, from Micron and GlobalFoundries to TSMC and Samsung,” Ezell stated.