WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government plans to provide up to $325 million to Hemlock Semiconductor to produce a key material for computer chips, an announcement Tuesday with possible political significance as the new factory would be in the swing state of Michigan. The funding would support 180 manufacturing jobs in Saginaw County, where Republicans and Democrats were neck-in-neck for the past two presidential elections. There would also be construction jobs tied to the factory that would produce hyper-pure polysilicon, a building block for electronics and solar panels, among other technologies.
