On December 2, news emerged that the U.S. Department of Commerce is poised to invest as much as $150 million in xLight, a burgeoning chip technology startup with ties to Pat Gelsinger, the former CEO of Intel. As revealed in a Monday statement, the Commerce Department's CHIPS Research and Development Office (operating under the National Institute of Standards and Technology) has inked a non-binding letter of intent to allocate this funding. This action forms part of the Trump administration's broader strategy to re-establish a more robust chip manufacturing presence on the U.S. mainland.

xLight, where Gelsinger holds the position of executive chairman, is pioneering a technology that aims to rival a key component of the extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) system developed by Dutch firm ASML. Currently, ASML sources many of its lasers from the German company Trumpf. By investing in xLight, the U.S. government is poised to further solidify its influence and footprint within the chip industry.