New York to Host National Semiconductor Research Hub With $825 Million Federal Investment

Semiconductor chips on a printed circuit board in an illustration picture taken on Feb. 17, 2023. Florence Lo/Illustration/Reuters

Upstate New York will be home to a national hub for cutting-edge semiconductor research, unlocking $825 million in federal funding to grow the United States’ domestic supply of computer chips.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced Thursday that the Albany NanoTech campus has been selected to host the national headquarters for research into extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, a sophisticated technology essential to make high-end chips that power smartphones, laptops, and computer servers.

The Albany location will be one of three federal labs forming the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC). The facility will officially be named the NSTC Extreme Ultraviolet Accelerator and is expected to be operational next year. The locations of the other two labs have yet to be announced.

New York beat out Oregon and other states to get the EUV center, according to Schumer, who has spent years making the case that his home state is best positioned for this investment and inviting federal officials from Washington to see the Albany campus for themselves.

The designation materialized 10 months after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a $1 billion investment in a Dutch-made EUV lithography tool capable of creating high-powered chips smaller than a nanometer. Albany NanoTech has dedicated a 50,000-square-foot space to house the device.

Schumer and Hochul have said they hope the dual investments will create a skilled workforce ready to meet the demands of tech giants like Micron and IBM while reducing the nation’s dependence on imported semiconductors—a problem underscored by global supply chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This will help ensure advancements in semiconductors that will shape the next century are stamped ‘Made in America’ and not developed and made in places like China,” said Schumer in the Oct. 31 statement.

“Today, Uncle Sam is saying that Albany NanoTech is THE place for developing the next frontier of America’s technological future.”

The $825 million funding will be provided by the U.S. Department of Commerce under the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Law of 2022. The law’s $52 billion investment package aimed to bolster domestic research and manufacturing of semiconductors, with an ambitious goal for the United States to produce 20 percent of the world’s most advanced semiconductor chips by the end of the decade.

As of 2023, American manufacturers account for about 12 percent of the world’s semiconductor supply—and none of the most advanced chips. The U.S. industry heavily relies on foreign suppliers, particularly in East Asia.

“Taiwan alone produces 92 percent of the world’s leading-edge chips, even though the majority of them are still based on technology created at UC Berkeley—with federal funding,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a speech last year.

The growing tensions between Taiwan and China have cast a shadow over the Taiwanese semiconductor industry. The Chinese Communist Party, while having never ruled Taiwan, claims the territory as a breakaway province and has not ruled out using force to “reunite” the democratic island with the authoritarian mainland.

Any outbreak of hostilities across the Taiwan Strait could prove devastating to global supply chains, potentially causing even more severe chip shortages than those experienced since 2021. During that year, a drought in Taiwan starved chip manufacturers of the high volumes of water they needed and triggered widespread repercussions, including production cuts among American automakers.

“Because Ford didn’t have access to enough chips—even for simple things like windshield wipers—their workers in places like Michigan and Indiana only worked a full week three times in the entire year,” said Raimondo, emphasizing the dangers of depending on foreign semiconductor supply chains.