Donald Trump’s administration has made the unprecedented decision to make a direct capital entry into XLight, a deep-tech startup led by former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, citing the Department of Commerce, the US government will invest up to $150 million in the company. The move represents a major adjustment in US semiconductor strategy. Washington is no longer limiting itself to subsidising factories and is beginning to build an active portfolio of holdings in technologies that could revolutionise the supply chain.
XLight is targeting the ‘holy grail’ of chip manufacturing – next-generation EUV lithography based on particle accelerators, which has the potential to break the technology monopoly and cost barriers of current solutions. For Pat Gelsinger, this is a ‘new card’ and a return to the highest stakes game just moments after leaving Intel. The White House’s decision sends a clear signal to the IT channel: the stream of federal funding is shifting from bailing out ‘legacy’ giants to supporting risky but critical hardware innovation. This investment could, in the long term, change the balance of power in global silicon production, making the US independent of external suppliers of lithography machines.
