The United States Commerce Department has reached a cooperative research and development agreement with Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) for producing chips that can be used by researchers for developing new semiconductor and nanotechnology devices.

The pact was signed between Google and the US Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The department on Tuesday said that the chips are to be manufactured by semiconductor company SkyWater Technology at its Bloomington, Minnesota, semiconductor foundry.

Formed in 1901, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a non-regulatory agency and physical sciences laboratory of the US Department of Commerce.

Its mission, inter alia, is to promote innovation and industrial competitiveness in America. Its activities are organized into programs that include nanoscale science and technology, engineering, material measurement, information technology, neutron research and physical measurement.