Micron Technology Inc on Tuesday announced it would open a semiconductor plant in upstate New York, promising a long-term investment of up to US$100 billion and a plant that could bring 50,000 jobs to the state.

The company was lured to the Syracuse area with help from a generous set of federal, state and local incentives, including up to US$5.5 billion in state tax credits over 20 years.

The announcement comes after US Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer had pushed for Idaho-based Micron and the company’s CEO, Sanjay Mehrotra, to consider upstate New York for its factory. It also comes months after Congress passed the US$280 billion Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science Act, which set aside US$52 billion to bolster the semiconductor industry.

“An investment of this scale in the US is simply not possible without significant government and community support,” Mehrotra said at the announcement.

In addition to tax credits tied to investment and job creation, New York has pledged US$200 million for road and infrastructure improvements where the plant is being built in suburban Clay and US$100 million to a “community benefit” fund. The state would also review supplying the operation with low-cost power.

The federal bill was aimed at bolstering US competitiveness against China and avoiding another chip shortage like the one that derailed the automobile and technology industries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Chips are essential to our economy, and if we were to lose the ability to manufacture chips here in the United States, it would be a severe, both economic security and national security risk,” Schumer said in an interview with The Associated Press. “This will be the most advanced memorychip manufacturing facility in the United States and probably the world. And it’s located in a place that will really benefit from it.”

The company plans to invest up to US$100 billion over the next 20-plus years to construct the project, with the first investment of US$20 billion planned by the end of the decade. The deal is also expected to bring more than 9,000 jobs to Micron, and officials believe it could also bring close to 40,000 other ancillary jobs to the region, from suppliers to contractors, officials said.

Micron has several chip manufacturing plants around the world, including in Singapore and Taiwan. The company announced last month that it would invest US$15 billion through the end of the decade on a new semiconductor plant in its hometown, which the chipmaker said would create 17,000 US jobs.

Manish Bhatia, Micron’s executive vice president of global operations, said that New York was selected in large part because it has a history of semiconductor development.

New York is home to 76 semiconductor companies, Schumer said.

“There is an ecosystem of other manufacturers, research institutions,” Bhatia said. “We believe we can funnel a lot of that talent” to the Syracuse area, including military veterans.


 

• By TAIPEI TIMES