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US Commerce Department Awards Chip Startup I-Pulse $250M Under CHIPS

June 25, 2026 at 16:31 EDT

Infra & Chips
Funding & M&A
Policy & Regulation

The U.S. Department of Commerce signed a definitive agreement with chip startup I-Pulse Inc. on June 25, 2026, for a $250 million CHIPS research and development award. The aim is to reduce reliance on foreign semiconductor supply chains and strengthen domestic manufacturing and research.

June 25, 2026 · CHIPS R&D Office

US Commits $250M to a Homegrown Chip & Pulsed-Power Bet

The Commerce Department signed a definitive CHIPS Research & Development Award with startup I-Pulse to scale silicon-carbide solid-state switches — tightening the domestic supply chain and cutting reliance on Taiwan and South Korea.

$250M

CHIPS R&D Award — among the larger such awards to date

R&D facilities: Albuquerque, Detroit, Toulouse

2007

Year I-Pulse was founded as a privately held US firm

Order-of-Magnitude Faster Drilling

Pulsed electrical bursts fracture and soften rock — demonstrations show roughly 10× the drilling rate of conventional methods, while extending drill-bit life.

1×

Conventional

~10×

I-Pulse pulsed-power

One Technology, Many Markets

The funded work: SiC-based high-temperature, high-current, high-voltage solid-state switches — built for durability in high-output pulsed applications.

Geothermal drilling Mining Rock crushing Manufacturing Defense systems Data-center baseload power

WELCOMED

Seen as bolstering domestic chip manufacturing and advancing US technological and energy independence away from foreign supply chains.

STILL EARLY

No first-product timeline is disclosed and the effort remains in the R&D phase — broad real-world evaluations do not yet exist.

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