Technology companies IBM, Micron, Applied Materials, Tokyo Electron and others will partner to build the center at NY CREATES' Albany NanoTech Complex. Speaking at the complex on Monday, Hochul said New York is leading in the tech race for dominance.
"There's massive implications for national security, technological innovation, economic growth and independence," the governor said, "and the Chinese, in particular, attempting to dominate this industry. And guess what? We have no intention of letting that happen. And that's why, here today, we're launching a new $10 billion partnership with leaders from the semiconductor industry and taking one more step forward to make sure New York is the semiconductor capital of the world."
The news follows an announcement about a month ago by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer that the Buffalo-Rochester-Syracuse region had won a federal Tech Hub designation created by the federal CHIPS & Science Act. The designation will create the "NY SMART I-Corridor Tech Hub."
"This $10 billion means hundreds of new high-paying tech and construction jobs, along with scientists and leading companies from around the world turning to the Capital Region as the place where they conduct their research," Schumer said in a statement. "I wrote the CHIPS & Science Act because I knew it would be transformative for Upstate New York, which was perfectly suited to bring this industry that is vital to America's national security and economic future back from overseas."
To support Albany's new semiconductor center, New York state will contribute $1 billion to expand the complex with the establishment of the High NA EUV Center through the purchase of ASML's EXE:5200 High NA EUV scanner, as well as the construction of NanoFab Reflection — a new, highly sophisticated building with more than 50,000 square feet of clean room space. Hochul said the new clean room space will hopefully spur the construction of even more clean room space and grow future collaborations. The expansion is expected to create 700 new jobs.
"We don't do anything small here — $10 billion, think about that scale. This historic investment will establish a next generation research and development center right here, right here in Albany at the NanoTech Complex, the most advanced in the country," Hochul said. "It'll fund the construction of cutting-edge equipment, the first and only of its kind in North America."
Hochul also stressed the economic and geopolitical importance of manufacturing in the U.S., citing the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It's that supply chain challenge that we saw firsthand during the pandemic. It's not hypothetical, those supply chains came to a halt. The ports were crowded. The materials weren't coming in from other places," she said. "You don't have to imagine what that would look like, it happened in our country. Just imagine, think about what happened to the auto industry. By not having chips, it literally put the brakes on the manufacturing, endangering thousands of jobs here and elsewhere. Or imagine the geopolitical shift where countries turn on us, place embargoes and trade practices stop us from receiving these chips, how debilitating and crippling that would be for our manufacturers."
© 2023 The Daily Gazette, Schenectady, N.Y. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
