Trump Administration Takes Another Move in Strategic Industries: To Invest in xLight

　　The Trump administration has agreed to inject up to $150 million into a startup seeking to develop more advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology in the United States. This marks the latest move by the government to use incentives to support strategically important domestic industries.

　　In a press release issued on Monday, the U.S. Department of Commerce stated that under this arrangement, the Department of Commerce will provide incentives to xLight; in return, the U.S. government will acquire equity in xLight, potentially becoming its largest shareholder.

　　Dutch company ASML is currently the world's sole producer of EUV lithography machines, with each machine potentially costing hundreds of millions of dollars. xLight aims to improve a component in the EUV process: the crucial laser that etches complex microscopic patterns onto silicon wafers. xLight hopes to integrate its light source products into ASML's machines.

　　xLight represents a comeback for Pat Gelsinger, the former CEO of American legacy chipmaker Intel. At the end of last year, after Intel faced weak financial performance and stalled manufacturing expansion, Gelsinger was dismissed by Intel's board of directors. He subsequently joined xLight as the executive chairman of its board.

　　xLight's deal utilizes funds allocated under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act for early-stage companies with promising technological prospects. This is the first project award under the CHIPS Act during Trump's second term and is a preliminary agreement, meaning it has not been finalized and may be subject to changes.

　　"This partnership will support a technology that could fundamentally rewrite the limits of chip manufacturing," U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick stated in the press release.