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SandboxAQ announced a definitive agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s CHIPS Research and Development Office for a $500 million award to address one of the most urgent challenges in American manufacturing: the foreign control of critical materials and chemistries that are essential to semiconductor manufacturing.
The award provides funding to develop novel molecules and formulations for semiconductor manufacturing within four programmatic areas: PFAS-free process chemicals, catalysts, rare earth-free magnets, and battery systems. SandboxAQ will then advance the strongest breakthrough results into scaled domestic manufacturing and commercialization, via high-performing American manufacturing partners. This funding supports R&D across target categories in which foreign supply suppressed domestic production for decades and will ultimately strengthen national and economic security.
SandboxAQ will invest in enhancements to its ReAQT software platform and Large Quantitative Models (LQMs) to accelerate its work in virtually screening millions of candidate materials, after which it will select the most promising to validate with lab partners. LQMs are AI systems trained on the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology, not human language. What otherwise would take decades of laboratory trial-and-error can now run as a targeted, AI-driven campaign. The award allocates the funding across four material programmatic areas and for foundational investment in SandboxAQ’s core LQM platforms for advanced chemical and materials development critical to semiconductor manufacturing. In connection with the award, the Department of Commerce will receive a minority, non-voting equity stake in SandboxAQ.
“President Trump is committed to strengthening America’s semiconductor supply chain and ensuring national security," said Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. "This award will accelerate the discovery and innovation of critical materials and reduce our reliance on foreign-controlled materials.”
Jack Hidary, CEO of SandboxAQ, said: "Securing America's semiconductor future means controlling the materials that drive this vital sector. SandboxAQ’s large quantitative models are grounded in the engineering and physics needed to address the needs of our domestic semiconductor sector. This award from the U.S. Department of Commerce enables SandboxAQ to run advanced AI-driven programs across four critical material categories and then work with partners to scale the resulting formulations.”
