The U.S. Department of Commerce said on Monday that more than 200 companies have expressed interest in applying for funding under the CHIPS Act.

The department's CHIPS Program Office said in a press release that it has received more than 200 Statements of Interest(SOIs) from potential applicants as of Friday, but did not disclose the names of the companies.

The department opened the application process on February 28, saying that potential applicants must submit SOIs at least 21 days prior to full applications.

The press release said that more than half of the statements indicate interest in the first funding opportunity covering commercial fabrication facilities, including for leading-edge chips, as well as back-end packaging facilities.

The other SOIs were related to the forthcoming funding opportunities for semiconductor suppliers and R&D facilities.

The CHIPS Act allocates 52-point-seven billion dollars in spending to boost investment in the U.S. semiconductor industry for the next five years – 39 billion dollars for semiconductor manufacturing and 13-point-two billion dollars for research and development.