Infinera Awarded California Competes Grant
Infinera has announced that it has been awarded a California Competes (CalCompetes) grant valued at up to $14 million over five years by the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz). The company says this is a first step to expand and modernise Infinera’s US-based domestic production of next-generation semiconductors and continue to support innovation and economic development in the United States in future years.
Infinera is a domestic optical compound semiconductor manufacturer with in-house fab operations and advanced test and packaging capabilities in multiple states. According to the company, the CalCompetes grant will enable it to build upon its 20+ year history in the United States and continue to drive innovation in indium phosphide-based compound semiconductor and monolithic photonic integrated circuit (PIC) technologies. Fostering the domestic production of these critical and emerging technologies helps increase America’s economic and national security in semiconductor innovation, manufacturing, and supply chain resilience.
The CalCompetes Grants are one of California’s main incentive programmes to leverage tens of billions of dollars of federal funds available under the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) Act. The CHIPS Act is designed to encourage growth and expansion of semiconductor manufacturing and research and development in the United States.
“We are grateful and honoured to receive this grant award, which represents an important step in helping to boost America’s domestic production of semiconductor technologies,” said David Heard, Chief Executive Officer, Infinera. “Since our founding, we chose to keep our optical compound semiconductor fab and advanced packaging operations in the United States. We remain committed to leveraging our unique expertise, talent, and capabilities to support the goals of US federal and state initiatives focused on economic development and national security.”
