Overview
Federal Program Offices and Awards
Federal capital reaches the Austin region through six offices: the Department of Commerce CHIPS Program Office, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Energy (DOE) and NASA. CHIPS Act site selection is conditioned on state and local support, and DARPA awards typically require state matching investment and an academic-industry consortium.
| Program | Recipient | Amount | What It Funds |
|---|---|---|---|
| CHIPS Act (Commerce) | Samsung Austin Semiconductor | Up to $4.745B | Two 2nm logic fabs and an R&D fab in Taylor; Austin fab expansion |
| DARPA NGMM | Texas Institute for Electronics (TIE), UT Austin | $840M (July 2024) | Open-access prototyping fab for 3D heterogeneous integration |
| NSF leadership-class computing | Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) | $457M multi-year | Facility for the Horizon supercomputer |
| NSF research grants | UT Austin | $176.4M (FY2024) | Computer science, geosciences, life and physical sciences |
| NSF AI Institute renewal | Institute for Foundations of Machine Learning (IFML) | $20M (2025) | Open-source AI research and infrastructure |
| NASA Human Landing System | SpaceX | About $4B (2021 and 2022) | Starship lunar lander for Artemis III and IV |
CHIPS Act
CHIPS Act Award to Samsung Taylor
President Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act on August 9, 2022. It appropriated about $52.7 billion for semiconductors and research, including $39 billion in manufacturing grants run by the CHIPS Program Office within the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), plus authority for up to $75 billion in loans and loan guarantees. Through July 2025, Commerce had awarded $30.9 billion across 40 projects, per the Government Accountability Office (GAO), with completion expected by 2033.
Commerce awarded Samsung up to $4.745 billion for two leading-edge 2nm logic fabs, an R&D fab and an expansion of its Austin plant, against Samsung's commitment of more than $37 billion in Texas. The project is expected to create more than 15,000 jobs. In 2024, Taylor construction put $8.6 billion into the local economy and supported 8,868 direct and 9,768 indirect jobs; the City of Taylor collected $21.6 million in sales tax in fiscal year 2023-2024.
The federal award sits alongside a $250 million Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund grant (September 2025) and Williamson County and City of Taylor Chapter 380 agreements. The Taylor expansion is the largest foreign direct investment in Texas history.
Policy
CHIPS Act Under the Trump Administration
President Trump called for repealing the CHIPS Act in his March 4, 2025 address to Congress, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick began renegotiating Biden-era grants. In August 2025, Commerce cut off most funding to Natcast, the operator of the National Semiconductor Technology Center, and converted Intel's grant into a federal equity stake.
Congress kept the program's tax side and raised the Section 48D advanced manufacturing investment credit from 25% to 35% in the July 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Renegotiations have focused on removing diversity and social-policy conditions, such as childcare plans, from award contracts. No disruption to the Samsung award has been reported, but disbursement timing remains at Commerce's discretion.
Research
DARPA, NSF, DOD and DOE at UT Austin
The DARPA NGMM award builds a national open-access prototyping fab at TIE for 3D heterogeneous integration (3DHI), which assembles diverse materials and chips into compact microsystems for radar, satellite imaging, drones and commercial uses. The $552 million Texas appropriation came first; together the federal and state money funds a $1.4 billion project with 32 defense and commercial chip companies and 18 universities. TIE runs about 84,000 square feet of clean room at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus and the Montopolis Drive plant, Sematech's former home, led by principal investigator S.V. Sreenivasan and CEO Dwayne LaBrake, formerly president and CEO of Canon Nanotechnologies.
UT Austin ranked first nationally in NSF-funded research in fiscal year 2024 ($176.4 million, per the NSF Higher Education Research and Development Survey), with $90 million in computer and information sciences; federal agencies fund more than 75% of its external research. The $457 million NSF grant builds the facility for Horizon at TACC, built with Dell Technologies and NVIDIA and expected to deliver about 10 times the power of Frontera. NSF also renewed IFML with $20 million in 2025 and funds the Center for Dynamics and Control of Materials.
UT Austin ranks fifth nationally in DOD-funded research and sixth in DOE-funded research (FY2024). DOD money supports Cockrell School defense work, including Texas Robotics autonomous navigation with the U.S. Army; DOE money supports the Jackson School of Geosciences, including Peter Flemings's methane hydrate coring beneath the Gulf of Mexico.
NASA
NASA Contracts to SpaceX
NASA awarded SpaceX $2.89 billion on April 16, 2021 for the Starship Human Landing System (HLS) for Artemis III, then a $1.15 billion Option B in November 2022 for an upgraded lander for Artemis IV that docks with the lunar Gateway and carries four crew. Most of that work lands at Starbase in Cameron County, not the Austin metro.
The Austin-region link runs through the Bastrop complex and Texas suppliers. SpaceX's $17.3 million Bastrop award is a state TSIF grant, not federal money; NASA also funds smaller research grants at UT Austin.
Record
Dataset Record
- Sources
- U.S. Department of Commerce and NIST CHIPS Program Office; GAO; DARPA; NSF HERD Survey; TACC; NASA; Office of the Texas Governor
- Last verified
- Q4 2026