Here's where the last $6 billion in CHIPS Act semiconductor award money is going

• With $6 billion left to dole out in CHIPS Act award money, the Commerce Department is looking to fund dozens of small companies along the semiconductor supply chain.
• Commerce is focused on leveraging the grant money to lure in as much private investment as possible.
• Industry players and experts say funding suppliers is crucial to shoring up economic and national security.

The rollout of the Biden administration's CHIPS Act award money has so far focused on providing major awards for major companies, with just four leading-edge semiconductor manufacturers receiving the lion's share of the $33 billion that has been allocated to this point.

Now, with $6 billion remaining, the focus is shifting to sending smaller awards to smaller companies—dozens of them, up and down the supply chain.

The goal, government officials and industry experts say, is to leverage the remaining grant money to lure in as much private investment as possible, while boosting supply chain resilience and economic security by funding U.S.-based facilities in areas like materials and packaging.

"We are really focused on investing across the semiconductor ecosystem," Michael Schmidt, director of the CHIPS Program Office at the Commerce Department, told CNBC. 

That means funneling investments to both upstream suppliers – companies providing materials and equipment, for example – and downstream players, such as those involved in the advanced packaging that takes place after a semiconductor is produced. Schmidt said some current mature technologies, also known as legacy chipmakers, will likely be in line for a piece of the remaining funds as well.

"Once we begin to rebuild that ecosystem in this country, once we begin to rebuild the scale that we expect to see