Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

The US Department of War announced an USD 18.5 million Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III investment in Lattice Materials (Bozeman, Montana) to expand its capacity to produce optical-grade germanium and silicon crystals and to establish a new capability to recover germanium metal from recycled scrap. The award, funded from the Additional Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2022, was approved on 26 September 2025 but public announcement was delayed to 22 December 2025 by the federal government shutdown. Lattice is a leading US manufacturer of germanium and silicon infrared optical lenses, windows and mirrors used in defense surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting systems.

On 17 September 2025 the General Office of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government issued Hufubangui [2025] No. 8, a five-year (26 September 2025 - 25 September 2030) state-aid framework to accelerate frontier-technology innovation and cultivate "future industries" across six domains — future manufacturing, future information, future materials, future energy, future space and future health. Targeted technology areas include cell and gene therapy, brain-computer interfaces, biomanufacturing, embodied intelligence (humanoid robotics/AI hardware), fourth-generation semiconductors, silicon photonics, 6G, neuromorphic computing, quantum technology, controlled nuclear fusion and regenerative medicine. Support is disbursed as tiered direct subsidies rather than tax relief, with named ceilings up to CNY 30 million per proof-of-concept/R&D platform and CNY 20 million per high-quality incubator or first-product/batch innovation award.

The European Commission approved a EUR 41.5 million Italian direct-grant state aid measure to Ephos Srl, an Italian photonics SME, to help finance "Fab-2," a new manufacturing facility for glass-based photonic integrated circuits used in AI datacentres, high-performance computing and quantum computing. The aid was cleared under the European Chips Act state aid framework (Commission case SA.117987, decision of 25 July 2025) and forms part of a EUR 104.9 million total project investment. Ephos already operates a first facility (Fab-1) in Milan; Fab-2 is intended to be the first EU facility of its kind processing this glass-substrate photonic chip technology at scale.

The Chips Joint Undertaking, via Horizon Europe grant agreement 101213727 signed 19 June 2025, is co-funding "PIXEurope" (Advanced Photonic Integrated Circuits Pilot Line for Europe), the fifth EU Chips Act pilot line. Fundació Institut de Ciències Fotòniques (ICFO, Spain), the project coordinator, receives EUR 10,112,253.51 in net EU contribution — the coordinator's own tranche of the wider 19-entity, multi-country consortium's EUR 176.05m total project cost (EUR 88.03m in EU/Chips JU contribution), running 1 June 2025 to 31 May 2030. This is a distinct beneficiary filing alongside the parallel TNO (Netherlands) tranche of the same grant agreement, which builds a 6-inch indium-phosphide pilot manufacturing line at High Tech Campus Eindhoven.

The Chips Joint Undertaking, via Horizon Europe grant agreement 101213727 signed 19 June 2025, is co-funding "PIXEurope" (Advanced Photonic Integrated Circuits Pilot Line for Europe), the fifth EU Chips Act pilot line, coordinated by Fundació Institut de Ciències Fotòniques (ICFO, Spain) with a 19-entity, multi-country consortium. Total project cost is EUR 176.05m against EUR 88.03m in EU/Chips JU contribution, running 1 June 2025 to 31 May 2030. TNO (Netherlands) is a lead participant, receiving EUR 13.47m in net EU contribution (EUR 26.94m total eligible cost) to build a 6-inch indium-phosphide photonic-chip pilot manufacturing line at High Tech Campus Eindhoven — part of a wider EUR 193m Dutch national co-investment (Ministry of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Defence, Chips JU, TNO, TU Eindhoven, University of Twente) targeting technological independence in photonic chips for telecom/6G, AI, quantum, defence and medical-diagnostics applications. Global Trade Alert logs a EUR 10.1m figure for the TNO tranche as a "red" state-act intervention (financial grant) on competitive-distortion grounds; this filing anchors on the CORDIS-published grant-agreement figures as the authoritative primary-source numbers.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) amended the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) by adding 13 entities under 13 entries to the Entity List, listed under the destinations of Burma (1), China (11), and Pakistan (1). The PRC additions concentrate on the optics/photonics, RF/microwave, and military-civil-fusion research-institute layer of China's military-modernization stack — including CAS Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics (CIOMP), Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (SIOM), Peng Cheng Laboratory, Ji Hua Laboratory, and the Yaguang/Chengdu RML defense-electronics cluster — with explicit references to support for hypersonic-weapons development. The Burma entity is Telecom International Myanmar (Mytel), added for providing surveillance services and financial support to the post-coup military regime; the Pakistan entity (Emerging Future Solutions Pvt Ltd) was added for contributions to Pakistan's ballistic-missile programme. All 13 entries carry a license requirement for all items subject to the EAR with a presumption-of-denial review policy and no license exceptions. The rule was effective on publication, January 6, 2025, with a savings clause through February 5, 2025 for goods already en route.