The U.S. Department of Commerce signed letters of intent for up to $389 million in CHIPS and Science Act R&D awards spanning fusion power electronics, AI data center power delivery and semiconductor materials. The proposed package includes up to $175 million for Helion, $85 million for Commonwealth Fusion Systems, $73 million for Vertical Semiconductor and $56 million for Sibelco. Commerce would receive minority, noncontrolling, nonvoting equity stakes in each company as a condition of the awards.

Vertical Semiconductor’s project provides the most direct AI infrastructure application: development of vertical gallium nitride (GaN) FinFET power transistors and a demonstration targeting a 2.5 MW AI rack. The MIT spinout says the initiative would deploy the devices across the data center power chain, with design goals of reducing energy losses by 30% and physical footprint by 50%. These are development targets; the release does not specify the comparison baseline or report a completed rack demonstration.

Helion says its proposed award would be accompanied by $50 million in private investment, supporting semiconductor R&D, advanced packaging and manufacturing capabilities in Washington and tooling development with a partner in Vermont. Commonwealth Fusion Systems’ proposed work covers electronics for plasma heating, diagnostics and radiation-intensive environments. Sibelco’s project would advance high-purity quartz through leaching, hot chlorination, product engineering and a pilot facility. The announcements remain at the letter-of-intent stage; Sibelco explicitly identifies due diligence, negotiations and government approvals as outstanding steps.

“Power is the most significant bottleneck in the build-out of AI infrastructure,” said Cynthia Liao, CEO and co-founder of Vertical Semiconductor.

Analysis

The technical connection is power conversion. Vertical Semiconductor positions its devices for the move to 800 VDC distribution, while Helion needs switches that repeatedly deliver and recover large pulses of energy. In a data center, raising distribution voltage reduces current for a given power level, but conversion to the much lower voltages used by processors remains necessary. As an illustrative calculation, a 2.5 MW load would draw 3,125 A at 800 V before conversion losses. Higher distribution voltage therefore addresses only part of the engineering problem; conversion, protection and cooling still matter.

The rack demonstration remains a development milestone rather than evidence of commercial deployment. Useful follow-up disclosures would include the efficiency measurement boundary, operating load, thermal conditions and the baseline behind Vertical Semiconductor’s percentage targets. Sibelco’s work addresses a different constraint: the processing and validation of materials used in semiconductor production. Together, the projects connect energy systems with the devices and materials needed to build them, while leaving substantial development and award-finalization work ahead.