Micron to invest up to $100 billion in New York chip plant

Micron Technology will invest up to $100 billion over the next two decades to build a semiconductor factory in upstate New York, the chipmaker announced Tuesday.

The fabrication facility will be the largest in U.S. history and will support nearly 50,000 New York jobs, the company said. Micron will invest $20 billion by the end of the decade and plans to expand from there. 

The announcement comes after President Biden signed a bipartisan bill to provide lucrative new subsidies to companies that produce microchips in the U.S. Micron will also benefit from $5.5 billion in incentives from New York state.

“This historic leading-edge memory megafab in Central New York will deliver benefits beyond the semiconductor industry by strengthening U.S. technology leadership as well as economic and national security, driving American innovation and competitiveness for decades to come,” Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said in a statement. 

The investment indicates that federal subsidies are beginning to help restore semiconductor manufacturing to the U.S. after companies largely outsourced those jobs to Asia in recent decades. 

The U.S. has suffered from a shortage of microchips that are used in computers, cars, appliances and military weapons throughout much of the pandemic, and lawmakers have warned that the nation is too reliant on Taiwan, China and South Korea for semiconductors. 

“To those who doubted that America could dominate the industries of the future, I say this – you should never bet against the American people,” Biden said in a statement Tuesday. 

The CHIPS and Science Act, passed in August, provides $54 billion in direct subsidies and $24 billion in new tax credits to semiconductor manufacturers. Chipmakers aggressively lobbied lawmakers to pass the bill this year, warning that they would expand outside of the U.S. if Congress didn’t act. 

Micron will build the facility in Clay, N.Y., with construction planned for 2024. The company said that the project marks the largest private investment in the state’s history.

“This project is a dramatic turning point for a region that has faced decades of lost manufacturing jobs,” Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement.