Micron announces site for U.S. ‘megafab’ far larger than one it just unveiled for Boise
Idaho’s largest for-profit employer has announced a major expansion in New York state.
Micron Technology Inc. plans to invest $100 billion in the next two decades to build a new fab, or plant, for memory manufacturing in Clay, New York, just outside of Syracuse.
But this isn’t a typical fab, short for semiconductor fabrication. The company said the “mega fab” will be the largest ever built in the history of the U.S.
The plant would dwarf the $15 billion fab Micron announced in September for its headquarters campus in Southeast Boise.
The new fab in New York will create nearly 50,000 jobs, including 9,000 high-paying jobs at Micron itself, the company predicted in a news release announcing the expansion. Micron has said its fab in Boise will generate more than 17,000 jobs, including 2,000 at Micron.
The investments follow passage of the CHIPS and Science Act by Congress, which was signed by President Joe Biden in August. The legislation authorized subsidies for semiconductor companies to expand in the U.S.
“Today brings another massive investment in America thanks to my economic plan,” Biden wrote Tuesday on Twitter.
The New York fab could include four 600,000 square-foot clean rooms, according to the company’s news release. Clean rooms are where silicon wafers are turned into integrated circuits. The plant would occupy 2.4 million square feet, or the size of about 40 football fields.
The Boise fab will be the size of about 10 football fields, Micron President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said at a groundbreaking ceremony at the company’s headquarters Sept. 12.
“Micron will leverage the diverse, highly educated and skilled talent in New York as we look to build our workforce in the Empire State,” Mehrotra said Tuesday.
Site preparation will begin in 2023 and construction in 2024, with production ramping up over the latter half of the decade, the news release said. The company hopes to increase its U.S.-based manufacturing of DRAM, or dynamic random-access memory, to about 40% of its global production in the next 10 years.
The company said it received $5.5 billion in incentives from the state of New York as well as “key infrastructure support” from the city of Clay and Onondaga County.
Micron selected the location for its proximity to higher education institutions, affordable cost of living and local military population aligned with its goals to hire veterans. The site also has access to enough water and power for a project of its scale, the new release said.
The region has a long history of semiconductor manufacturing but has faced decades of lost jobs. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer said the move puts Upstate New York back on the map.
“This is our Erie Canal moment,” Schumer said in Micron’s new release. “Micron’s investment will make New York’s semiconductor corridor into a major engine powering our economy and will supply ‘Made in New York’ microchips to everything from electric vehicles, 5G, and defense technology to personal computers and smartphones.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the investment would solidify the area as a global manufacturing hub and “usher the state into another Industrial Revolution.”
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