You don't need to create an Intel competitor from scratch. For example the same money can be better invested in Infineon, ASML, Bosch or a number of local companies that work on chips. Or it could be put into RISC-V work.
Mercedes got $260m in Alabama in the early 1990s, BMW got $150m in South Carolina in the early 1990s, Volkswagen got $570m in the late 2000s in Tennessee. That's close to $1.6 billion inflation adjusted from just three examples of it.
The US economy is six times the size of Germany's economy, so those are massive subsidies in relation.