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For decades, the US led the world in semiconductor innovation. However, over time, critical parts of that ecosystem moved offshore, exposing vulnerabilities in national security and supply chains. The CHIPS and Science Act is a significant effort to reverse that trend and rebuild America’s technological edge from the ground up.
The CHIPS and Science Act, signed into law in 2022, marked a pivotal shift in US industrial strategy. With over $50 billion allocated to revitalize domestic semiconductor manufacturing and research, the act encompasses more than just fabs and chips. It’s about building a more resilient, agile, and secure digital infrastructure from design to production to lifecycle management. Ultimately, the CHIPS Act will foster increased innovation between critical players in the semiconductor sector.
A key component of making the CHIPS and Science Act a success is the contribution of product lifecycle management solutions (PLM) and its ability to act as a collaboration hub for organizations that previously may have never worked together. Improved collaboration system capabilities and the ability for additional stakeholders to leverage an organization’s digital thread will play an important role allowing the CHIPS Act’s objectives to thrive. From ensuring traceability and regulatory compliance to improving supply chain flexibility and enabling better design-for-manufacturing, these solutions will serve as the digital backbone of the enterprise, keeping systems connected, operations efficient, and the organization prepared for future challenges.
Why PLM is critical to the success of the CHIPS Act
While the CHIPS Act is primarily focused on boosting semiconductor production, its impact reaches across the entire high-tech manufacturing supply chain. Below are four key aspects of the CHIPS Act—and why having a strong solution strategy will be essential for companies to thrive in this new landscape, especially for those that manufacture or support high-tech industries.
To secure federal funding, companies must demonstrate end-to-end visibility and traceability by ensuring transparency into suppliers, components, and manufacturing processes.
Impacts:
- PLM systems create a digital thread that links every step of the lifecycle, from chip design to fab output and end use, enabling traceability and compliance.
- Managing regulatory alignment is especially critical for sensitive defense, aerospace, and export-controlled chips, where traceability to source and process is mandatory.
- Under the act, safety, environmental, and cybersecurity requirements are stricter than ever and must be embedded early in the design process. PLM solutions can enable companies to execute new compliance processes early in the process and by design.
Under the CHIPS Act, government, private sector, academia, and consortia – such as the National Council for Science and Technology Communication – are collaborating across ecosystems.
Impacts:
- A common digital backbone for secure, role-based collaboration on R&D, manufacturing, and systems engineering.
- Support for IP reuse and knowledge sharing: Particularly important for speeding innovation and reducing duplicative efforts.
The CHIPS Act emphasizes sustainability and yield optimization to ensure long-term competitiveness.
Impacts:
- Improving first-pass yield through closed-loop feedback from manufacturing to design.
- Managing variants and complexity across different chiplet configurations and packaging strategies in heterogeneous integration.
- Lifecycle sustainability by tracking environmental and compliance data throughout the product lifecycle (e.g., carbon footprint, RoHS, REACH).
The CHIPS and Science Act focuses on revitalizing US semiconductor manufacturing and innovation, and with time-to-market pressures accelerating, modular, low-code platforms are essential for moving quickly.
Impacts:
- The use of advanced product line management for highly complex chip development processes spanning design, simulation, fabrication, packaging, and testing.
- PLM helps teams collaborate and iterate across functions to enable rapid review and updates, which are vital for reducing design cycles and staying competitive globally.
Why legacy PLM systems may struggle in a CHIPS-driven economy
While most major solutions may deliver out-of-the-box capabilities for these themes to some extent, effectively adapting their customers’ existing, customized deployments to meet the new requirements of the CHIPS Act may be more challenging. Many, if not most, legacy PLM systems are siloed, rigid, and expensive, making it difficult for them to adapt quickly. Technical solutions that deliver these capabilities at the highest level while also providing the capabilities to accommodate each customer’s specific business model quickly will outclass the rest of the field. These solutions are best positioned to thrive in the CHIPS-driven economy as strategic enablers. Some points to consider:
Siloed Systems Break the Digital Thread
Most older solutions are still organized around functional silos, design in one corner, manufacturing in another, quality and service off to the side. In semiconductors, where chip design, packaging, and system integration must evolve together, this separation makes it almost impossible to maintain a true digital thread-the result: gaps in visibility, weak traceability, and slower collaboration across the broader ecosystem.
Rigid Architectures vs. Agile Engineering
Chip development is no longer a straight line from concept to BOM. It’s iterative, fast-moving, and profoundly multidisciplinary. As discussed earlier, many legacy PLM platforms were designed for a different era, one that assumed long, sequential lifecycles. That rigidity makes it tough to support chiplet-based architecture, rapid design spins, or concurrent work across design, fab, and test teams.
Integration Gaps with Modern Design Tools
Innovation in semiconductors depends on tight feedback loops between design intent and manufacturing reality. Yet most legacy PLM tools don’t integrate well with today’s EDA platforms, simulation tools, or smart manufacturing systems. Without smooth, two-way data exchange, companies miss opportunities to improve yield, quality, and time-to-market.
Weak Support for IP Reuse
The industry thrives on reusable IP, standard cells, verified blocks, and increasingly, chiplets. However, most PLM systems are BOM-centric, rather than IP-centric. They lack the version control and metadata needed to track and reuse IP across projects. That means more reinvention, less efficiency, and added compliance headaches.
Security and Compliance Gaps
In the world of the CHIPS Act, security and data sovereignty aren’t optional. Programs must meet strict requirements, including ITAR, EAR, and NIST 800-171. Many traditional PLM tools were not designed with these controls in mind, leaving sensitive IP exposed to risk, especially in defense and dual-use applications.
Deployment Models That Don’t Fit
Finally, large PLM vendors often tie customers into rigid, enterprise-wide deployments and licensing models. For an ecosystem that spans startups, universities, fabs, and integrators, this creates barriers to adoption. Flexible, modular deployment is what’s needed; instead, inflexible models slow down participation and limit the return on public-private investment.
Aras is positioned to accelerate high-tech customers’ growth
Among solution providers, Aras stands out. The open, flexible platform and real-time digital thread capabilities have made it a strategic enabler for high-tech and manufacturing leaders navigating the post-CHIPS world. Additionally, Aras’ ability to act as a “collaboration hub” for innovators connects different types of organizations more effectively than ever before. Let’s examine several Aras customer stories and explore how their business models may benefit from the CHIPS Act.
Murata Manufacturing: Global Design, Local Execution
With its roots in Japan and a strong global footprint, Murata is expanding its presence in the automotive, healthcare, and energy sectors, which are deeply impacted by chip shortages. Murata turned to Aras to integrate its acquisitions and unify product data across diverse locations.
The CHIPS Act emphasizes onshoring manufacturing while still maintaining global collaboration. Murata’s ability to operate at this intersection is enhanced by Aras’ data-driven, process-flexible PLM capabilities.
“We needed a collaboration platform that could manage version control for thousands of parts and relationships. Aras provided the flexibility we needed to streamline global collaboration,” said Tohru Kamita, Senior IT Specialist.
This ability to scale and localize product development workflows is crucial for manufacturers supporting CHIPS-funded initiatives.
Tokamak Energy: Engineering Agility for a National Priority
While Tokamak Energy isn’t a chipmaker, it’s an excellent example of how agile PLM fuels rapid innovation in high-tech, federally supported sectors. This pioneer in fusion energy selected Aras Innovator® SaaS for its adaptability and self-sufficiency.
With CHIPS Act funding creating new partnerships in semiconductor R&D, companies like Tokamak offer a model for managing complex R&D and rapidly evolving technologies.
“The flexibility of Aras allows our team to independently develop functionality and expand capabilities without the costs usually associated with modular PLM systems,” said Martin Tsang, Transformation Lead.
Aras supports Tokamak’s integration of simulation data, change management, and ISO certification efforts, which are foundational elements for any CHIPS-aligned semiconductor startup.
Aeronamic: Aerospace Manufacturing That Scales
CHIPS Act funding isn’t limited to fabs; it supports a broad range of national defense and aerospace suppliers. Aeronamic, a manufacturer of high-speed rotating systems for aircraft, originally selected Aras to manage the lifecycle of aerospace components from design through MRO.
By enabling real-time connections between engineering and shop floor systems, Aeronamic can better support high-mix, low-volume production, precisely the kind of capability needed for next-generation chip production equipment and aerospace defense programs tied to CHIPS investments.
Carestream Health: From Innovation to Compliance
In regulated industries like medical devices, the CHIPS Act presents both an opportunity and a challenge. Companies must innovate more quickly while maintaining compliance. Carestream Health turned to Aras to manage document workflows, product data, and regulatory requirements in a single, scalable platform.
“PLM is a critical enterprise platform that must evolve to support a quality mindset, reduce compliance risks, and prepare for a fast-paced digital future,” said David Sherburne.
As CHIPS investments fuel medical semiconductor innovation, Carestream’s model is worth emulating.
Aras is leading the way for high-tech success in the CHIPS era
Succeeding in the CHIPS era takes more than funding or new fabs. It demands a combination of traits that are hard to achieve together: agility to respond quickly, discipline to maintain rigor, and the ability to adapt without losing control. Companies that can bring these qualities together will define the next chapter of US semiconductor leadership. Aras helps them do exactly that, blending digital flexibility with engineering discipline so organizations can move fast without breaking the structures that ensure quality and compliance.
The CHIPS Act is more than an industrial stimulus; it is a test of digital readiness. Manufacturers that continue to treat PLM as an afterthought will find it difficult to meet the standards for traceability, agility, and compliance that the Act requires. Those who place PLM at the center of their strategy will be well-positioned to thrive.
This is what we call the Aras Effect. In today’s fast-moving environment, traditional PLM systems are too rigid and too fragmented to keep up. The Aras Effect is different. It gives organizations the ability to truly own their digital thread – connecting design, manufacturing, quality, and supply chain into a single backbone. It is built on five principles: connection, adaptability, openness, scalability, and community. Together, they give engineering teams the tools to innovate faster, collaborate more effectively, and adapt with confidence as demands change.
With Aras, companies gain more than a platform. They gain a digital backbone that helps them make better decisions, prove compliance, and stay competitive in an industry where speed and precision are everything. That’s the advantage that will separate leaders from followers in the CHIPS era.