Trump Administration Funds xLight to Advance Chip Tech
The Trump administration has approved up to $150 million in support for xLight, a young semiconductor startup focused on next-generation chip manufacturing tools in the United States, as per reports. The investment signifies the administration’s most recent effort to bolster essential domestic industries through the use of government incentives. Under the preliminary arrangement, the Commerce Department will provide funding to xLight through the 2022 Chips and Science Act, which allocates resources for early-stage companies with high-potential technologies. In exchange, the US government will acquire an equity stake that may position it as xLight’s largest shareholder. At present, the Dutch company ASML stands as the sole provider of extreme ultraviolet lithography machines—devices that come with a price tag in the hundreds of millions of dollars and are crucial for the fabrication of the most sophisticated chips.
xLight seeks to enhance a vital component of this EUV system: the high-powered lasers that etch intricate patterns onto silicon wafers. The startup aims for its laser technology to be incorporated into ASML’s machines, paving the way for more precise and efficient chipmaking. The startup aims to develop free-electron lasers powered by a particle accelerator. These will function as potent, exceptionally accurate light sources for chip fabrication facilities. Each system will be substantial, measuring approximately 100 metres by 50 metres, and will be installed outside chip fabs as a utility-scale component. Executive Chairman Pat Gelsinger stated, “The federal investment will help xLight produce its first test wafers by 2028.” The company is led by CEO Nicholas Kelez, who has a background as a researcher in quantum technology and has worked in US government labs. xLight secured $40 million in funding earlier this year from a group of investors that includes Playground Global, where Gelsinger serves as a general partner.
ASML’s advanced lasers generate EUV light at a wavelength of 13.5 nanometres. xLight aims to reduce that to 2 nanometres, a significant advancement that could enable chipmakers to carve even more intricate features onto wafers. That advance could reinvigorate the momentum behind Moore’s Law, which posits that transistor counts — and chip power — should double every two years. “We are here to wake up Moore’s Law,” Gelsinger said. “It’s been taking a nap.” He stated that xLight’s system has the potential to decrease energy consumption and enhance wafer output by 30 percent to 40 percent. “If this company that’s successful, we will change semiconductors,” he stated. “We can enhance the economics of today’s EUV and facilitate tomorrow’s EUV.” xLight is under the leadership of executive chairman Pat Gelsinger, the former CEO of Intel, who was ousted by the board following the company’s challenges with disappointing earnings and setbacks in manufacturing expansion.
“I wasn’t done yet,” Gelsinger stated on Monday. “This is deeply personal to me.” His return has garnered significant attention, particularly as numerous current and former officials previously criticised him for pledging more than Intel could realistically provide while benefiting from substantial government subsidies. The xLight deal marks the inaugural Chips Act award revealed during Donald Trump’s second presidential term. The agreement remains in a preliminary stage and may undergo revisions. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stated that the partnership “would back a technology that can fundamentally rewrite the limits of chipmaking”. Some analysts, however, have raised concerns about the administration’s strategy of investing directly in private companies, describing it as a form of state capitalism, the news report stated. Lutnick has asserted that targeted support is essential to bolster industries vital to national security. The xLight announcement arrives as the administration intensifies its efforts to restore advanced chip manufacturing within the United States. In October, a startup backed by Peter Thiel, Substrate, successfully raised $100 million to establish EUV-capable fabs in the United States. The Commerce Department is exerting pressure on major manufacturers like TSMC to broaden their presence in the United States. Gelsinger stated that his initial conversation about xLight with Lutnick took place in February, prior to his joining the company and before Lutnick’s Senate confirmation.
