Landmark Partnership Creates Largest Investment in a Manufacturing Project in New York State History; the New Megafab Will Create Nearly 50,000 Jobs, Plus Thousands of Prevailing Wage Construction Jobs
With Schumer's Historic Federal CHIPS and Science Act As the Fuse, and Utilizing New York's Innovative Green CHIPS Legislation, Micron Will Build Largest Clean Room in Nation; Agreement Establishes $500 Million Community Fund and Prioritizes Hiring for Disadvantaged Communities, Veterans, MWBE Contractors and Will Make Groundbreaking Commitments to Sustainability
Reps: This Is Our Erie Canal Moment — Micron's Investment Will Ensure the Future Is Made in America and Will Redefine Upstate NY's Role in the Global Economy for Generations To Come
Governor Kathy Hochul, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon, and Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra today announced one of the largest economic development projects in U.S. history — a transformational public-private partnership with Micron Technology to build a cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing campus in Onondaga County, New York.
Micron, a U.S.-based memory and storage manufacturer and the fourth-largest producer of semiconductors in the world, will invest up to $100 billion over the next 20-plus years to construct the project, with the first phase investment of $20 billion planned by the end of this decade, creating nearly 50,000 jobs statewide — 9,000 new high-paying Micron jobs with an average annual salary of over $100,000 and over 40,000 community jobs — and create thousands and thousands of prevailing wage construction jobs. When complete, the complex will include the nation's largest clean room space at approximately 2.4 million square feet, the size of nearly 40 football fields.
This is another step for Micron to establish leading-edge memory manufacturing in the U.S. to meet the demand of consumer, industrial, and business products such as automotive and mobile, fueled by the adoption of artificial intelligence and 5G and make the United States more globally competitive. Modern manufacturing jobs at Micron will include opportunities for New Yorkers of varying educational and professional backgrounds from Central New York and beyond. This historic investment adds to New York's already robust semiconductor industry. New York is currently home to 76 semiconductor companies that employ over 34,000 New Yorkers, including global industry leaders like GlobalFoundries, Wolfspeed, onsemi, and IBM. New York is also home to the world-renowned Albany Nanotech Complex, which is a multibillion-dollar public-private partnership, comprising the most advanced, publicly owned, 300-millimeter semiconductor research and development facility and bringing together premier universities and leading industry players to drive cutting-edge chip development.
Central New York saw major American manufacturers and thousands of good jobs disappear when Agway Inc., Anaren Microwave, Carrier, Crucible, General Electric, Miller Brewing and General Motors closed their doors. Micron is bringing future-ready manufacturing back to Central New York by building a state-of-the-art memory chip manufacturing campus on 1,400 acres in the White Pine Commerce Park in the Town of Clay, north of Syracuse, creating economic opportunities for generations to come and returning good manufacturing jobs to Upstate New York. Micron will become one of the largest employers in the region, paying nearly double the average wage of Central New York.
Consistent with New York State's nation-leading Green CHIPS Act, Micron will draw its electricity from 100 percent renewable sources and make far reaching sustainability commitments. Micron will also implement a half-billion-dollar community investment framework to ensure that the project benefits the people and communities of Central New York.
Governor Kathy Hochul said, "Micron's $100 billion investment in New York marks the start of something transformative in scale and possibility for our state's economic future. I promised that we would jumpstart the economy by being the most business-friendly and worker-friendly state in the nation, and thanks to our State Green CHIPS legislation, the federal CHIPS and Science Act, and extraordinary partnerships with business, labor, and local and federal leaders, this project will do exactly that. Together, we are leveraging this investment — the largest private-sector investment in state history — to secure our economic future, solidify New York's standing as a global manufacturing hub, and usher the state into another Industrial Revolution."
Micron will develop a $100 billion semiconductor manufacturing complex over the next 20-plus years in multiple phases, with the first phase investment of $20 billion to planned by the end of this decade. Each phase is expected to include the construction and equipping of four memory fabs. Construction is expected to be pursuant to a project labor agreement, and workers will be paid, at a minimum, federal prevailing wage rates. Micron is also planning to spend 30 percent of its construction budget on work performed by Sociallyand Economically Disadvantaged Individuals, New York State-certified Minority and Women Business Enterprises, and Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Businesses.
This unprecedented investment is made possible through Schumer's historic,bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act that he led to passage earlier this year. Without this legislation, Micron would have decided to build its megafaboverseas. The bill created an Investment Tax Credit for semiconductor manufacturing facilities and a first-of-its-kind $52 billion in federal incentives to spur American semiconductor research, development, manufacturing, and workforce training to bring these good-paying jobs back from overseas, strengthen national security, and reestablish America's technological leadership. The bill requires recipients of these incentives to make significant worker and community investments that support equitable economic growth. Similarly, under the performance-based incentives through New York State's Green CHIPS program, the project is estimated to result in a total benefit-cost ratio of approximately 20:1, meaning that Micron will directly spend $20 on capital investment, research and development, and salaries and wages for every $1 of support provided by New York State.
An economic impact study by Regional Economic Models, Inc. (REMI) estimates that the Micron project will generate transformative economic growth for Central New York and New York State. Over the course of the first 31 years of operations, REMI estimates that the project will:
- Create, on average, nearly 50,000 jobs in New York State per year, including 9,000 jobs directly with the company.
- Grow New York State's economy significantly, generating an additional $16.7 billion in real (inflation adjusted) economic output, on average per year and $9.6 billion in real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on average.
- Provide an estimated annual average of $5.4 billion in real disposable personal income to New York residents.
- Generate an average annual increase of $556 million in state government revenue, totaling $17.2 billion over the first 31 years of the project, and an average annual increase of $826.1 million in revenue to local governments, totaling $25.6 billion over the same timeframe.
- Be one of the largest construction projects in North America, with construction spending of $31 billion and 5,600 related construction jobs on average at federal prevailing wage, for the initial 20 years.
COMMUNITY INVESTMENT COMMITMENT
Pursuant to the requirements of ESD's Green CHIPS program, and those expected of the federal CHIPs and Science Act, Micron will commit to 20 years' worth of community investments. These investments will be supported by a $500 million Green Chips Community Investment Fund, seeded with contributions of $100 million by ESD, at least $250 million by Micron, and the remainder by local, statewide, and national partners. More information on the Fund will become available in the coming weeks.
