Micron Technology will get $6.1 billion in grants from the Department of Commerce to build advanced chip-manufacturing fabs in New York and Idaho, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Wednesday.
The Biden administration has reached a preliminary agreement to provide Micron with $6.1 billion in funding from CHIPS and Science law—a legislation that was co-sponsored by Mr. Schumer.
Mr. Schumer said that Micron will build its first two chip fabs in Onondaga County as part of the funding. It stated that Micron planned to begin construction of the chip-manufacturing fabs next year.
The project in Onandaga County is expected to create 9,000 jobs at the chip fabs and more than 40,000 construction and supply-chain jobs, according to a press release.
“This is one of the largest single-direct federal investments in central New York’s history,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement.
“And now with billions in federal investment from my CHIPS and Science law, we are taking the next steps to get shovels in the ground to transform the Syracuse region and all of upstate into a global hub for the chips that will power America’s future,” he added.
The department will still need to conduct a review of Micron’s application and proposed project before it can finalizes the financial award.
Mr. Schumer called the funding a “historic federal investment,” which will support Micron to “bring its transformative $100-plus billion four-fab project in central New York to life, creating an estimated 50,000 jobs.”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Green CHIPS legislation, which provides tax credits for semiconductor manufacturing projects. Micron will receive $5.5 billion in tax credits from this legislation.
“As the first governor from upstate New York in more than a century, I’m proud to have helped secure this transformative deal along with our federal partners,” Ms. Hochul said in a statement.
“We’re going to revitalize our upstate economy—one microchip at a time,” she added.
The CHIPS Act was passed in response to America’s over-reliance on imports of foreign-made semiconductors, after the supply-chain crisis heavily impacted imports of the chips during the pandemic.
Computer chips are used in a variety of devices, such as cell phones, cars, appliances, and medical devices.
The CHIPS Act allocates $52.6 billion to support the sector. The Commerce Department is dedicating $28 billion in government subsidies for advanced chips manufacturing—although it has more than $70 billion in requests—and also has $75 billion in lending authority.
The U.S. share of global semiconductor manufacturing capacity has fallen from 37 percent in 1990 to 12 percent in 2020, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. Lawmakers have warned that U.S. dependence on chips manufactured in Taiwan by the world’s top contract chip manufacturer, TSMC, is risky because China claims the self-governed island as its territory and has reserved the right to use force to retake it.
