WASHINGTON, June 4 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's

administration is renegotiating some of former President Joe

Biden's grants to semiconductor firms, U.S. Commerce Secretary

Howard Lutnick said at a hearing on Wednesday, suggesting some

awards may be axed.

Some of the Biden-era grants "just seemed overly generous,

and we've been able to renegotiate them," Lutnick told lawmakers

on the Senate Appropriations Committee, adding the goal was to

benefit American taxpayers.

"All the deals are getting better, and the only deals that

are not getting done are deals that should have never been done

in the first place," Lutnick said, appearing to signal that not

all the awards would survive renegotiation.

Biden in 2022 signed the CHIPS and Science Act to plow

$52.7 billion into boosting semiconductor chips manufacturing

and research in the U.S. and luring chipmakers away from Asia.

The program rolled out billions in grants for semiconductor

heavyweights including Taiwan's TSMC, South Korea's

Samsung and SK Hynix ( HXSCF ), as well as

U.S.-based Intel ( INTC ) and Micron .

The grants, while signed, had only just begun to be

disbursed by the time Biden left office. The details of those

plans are not public but the money is meant to be disbursed as

companies make progress toward their pledged plant expansions.

MORE BANG FOR THE BUCK

Lutnick pointed to TSMC as an example of successful

renegotiation. He said the chipmaker -- which won a $6 billion

Chips Act award -- had increased by $100 billion its initial

pledge to invest $65 billion in U.S. manufacturing.

"We were able to modify the award for the same $6 billion of

(government) funding," he said.

TSMC announced the $100 billion in added investment in March

but it was not immediately clear whether that was part of a

renegotiation of its Chips Act award.

TSMC declined to comment.

Reuters reported in February that the White House was

seeking to renegotiate the awards and had signaled delays to

some upcoming semiconductor disbursements.

Lutnick also said the administration agrees with the goal of

having more than 50% of global AI computing capacity in America,

responding to concerns that deals like the one announced by

Trump last month to allow the United Arab Emirates to buy

advanced American artificial intelligence chips could deprive

the United States of key AI computing power.