Chip Firms Poised to Rake In Taxpayer Subsidies Spend Big on Stock Buybacks

An analysis published Thursday estimates that semiconductor firms positioned to receive billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies thanks to a 2022 U.S. law have spent big on investor-enriching stock buybacks in recent years, a finding that amplified calls for meaningful restrictions on companies benefiting from public money.

The new report released by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) shows that between 2019 and 2023, the first 11 corporations to reach preliminary CHIPS and Science Act agreements with the U.S. Department of Commerce collectively poured more than $41 billion into stock buybacks—a sum that would have been enough to finance a $27,541 raise for 300,000 employees annually for five years.

Intel, the company set to receive more CHIPS Act money than any other semiconductor firm, spent the most on buybacks: a staggering $30.2 billion between 2019 and 2023.

"We found no evidence that any of the companies with preliminary agreements have publicly committed to suspend their existing share repurchase plans—or to refrain from authorizing new plans—during the grant period," reads the report. "In fact, when members of Congress asked BAE Systems executives if the firm would commit to pausing stock buybacks or to not engage in future ones while receiving a taxpayer-funded CHIPS grant, they declined to answer."

The Biden White House, which worked hard to get the CHIPS Act across the finish line in 2022, has insisted that the law contains "strong guardrails" to prevent the misuse of taxpayer money, including on share repurchases.

But Sarah Anderson of IPS and Natalia Renta of the Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, the co-authors of the new report, noted Thursday that the statute only prohibits CHIPS Act subsidy recipients from spending the taxpayer money directly on buybacks.

"Since money is fungible, this is not a strong guardrail," the pair argued.

"Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act and President Biden signed it into law to bolster semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S.—not to waste public dollars on stock buybacks."

Critics of stock buybacks and sky-high executive compensation warned prior to the CHIPS Act's passage that the measure would amount to large-scale corporate welfare unless lawmakers placed serious constraints on how companies could spend the money.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) tried unsuccessfully to attach an amendment to the measure that would have barred subsidy recipients from buying back their own stock, outsourcing jobs, or attempting to sabotage unionization efforts.

A little over a month after President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS Act into law, a group of Democratic legislators warned U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo that while the statute "specifically prohibits the use of CHIPS funds for stock buybacks and dividend payments, these restrictions do not explicitly prohibit award recipients from using CHIPS funds to free up their own funds, which they can then use for those purposes."

The new IPS report notes that four semiconductor firms that have reached CHIPS Act agreements with the Biden administration have "board-approved share repurchase plans that would allow an additional $14.3 billion in buyback spending," with Intel accounting for more than half of that total.

The analysis also found that annual CEO compensation between 2019 and 2023 averaged close to $14 million at firms in line for CHIPS Act funding, while median pay at the companies was $73,046.

"Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act and President Biden signed it into law to bolster semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S.—not to waste public dollars on stock buybacks that make rich executives richer and exacerbate economic and racial inequality," said Renta, senior policy counsel for corporate governance and power at the Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund.

"Commerce Secretary Raimondo must finalize CHIPS contracts with strong stock buyback restrictions to make sure public money serves the public good, as intended, not narrow, private interests," Renta added.