The facility will produce dynamic random-access memory and follows a previous $15-billion announcement to build a facility in Idaho
Semiconductor manufacturer Micron Technology Inc. announced plans to invest up to $100 billion to build and operate the largest ever U.S.-based computer memory fabrication facility in Clay, N.Y., a suburb about 14 miles north of Syracuse. The so called “megafab” facility will produce dynamic random-access memory (DRAM).
Micron says the investment will create up to 9,000 new jobs within Micron and nearly 50,000 associated jobs. This is the largest private investment ever made in the state and comes on the heels of an earlier $15 billion investment to build a high-volume manufacturing DRAM fabrication facility in Boise, Idaho.
“Micron will leverage the diverse, highly educated and skilled talent in New York as we look to build our workforce in the Empire State,” said Micron President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra in a statement. “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 says it will design, build and operate the New York Megafab facility in accordance with its sustainability goals and that the site could eventually include four 600,000-square-foot cleanrooms—equivalent to approximately 40 football fields
Micron says this investment is part of a strategy to increase American-made DRAM production to 40 percent of the company’s global output over the next decade.
Site preparation will start in 2023, construction will begin in 2024 and production will ramp up to meet demand trends. The company says this will provide customers with a more resilient, secure and geographically diverse supply chain.
Micron will receive $5.5 billion in incentives from the state of New York over the life of the project and will benefit from federal grants and tax credits from the CHIPS and Science Act. The Town of Clay and Onondaga County are providing key infrastructure support, though did not state specifically what that would entail.
The company says New York’s higher education institutions, access to talent and a significant military population were key factors in choosing this location, which also has a readily available water supply and enough clean, reliable power to enable a project of this scale. The company is eyeing opportunities to collaborate on R&D initiatives with organizations like the Albany NanoTech Complex and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory.
“Micron’s $100 billion investment in Upstate New York will fundamentally transform the region into a global hub for manufacturing and bring tens of thousands of good-paying high-tech and construction jobs to Central New York,” said Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer at the event. “This project is a dramatic turning point for a region that has faced decades of lost manufacturing jobs, and, in combination with New York’s already robust microchip industry from the Hudson Valley, Albany, and the Mohawk Valley to Binghamton, Rochester, and Buffalo, it will put Upstate New York on the map in a way we haven’t seen in generations.”
Schumer says Micron’s investment will make New York’s semiconductor corridor into a major economic engine and will supply microchips to everything from electric vehicles, 5G, and defense technology to personal computers and smartphones.
“The bottom line is that without the CHIPS and Science legislation, Micron would have decided to build its mega-fab overseas. This investment leaves no question that the future of microchip manufacturing will remain not just in this country, but in Syracuse specifically, and that our future will be built in Upstate New York, with Central New York as a global center of the chip industry,” says Schumer.
Community and Workforce Development
Micron and the state of New York also plan a $500-million investment in community and workforce development with a focus on disadvantaged populations. Micron will kick in $250 million over the next 20 years as part of the company’s commitment to the Green CHIPS Community Investment Fund, with an additional $100 million from New York State and $150 million from local, state and national partners. The fund will be spent on training, education, housing, and initiatives to address economic disparities “…for underserved communities in the semiconductor industry.”
Sustainability Initiatives
Micron says it aims to use 100 percent renewable electricity at the new facility and plans to use green infrastructure and sustainable building to attain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold status. Greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) will be mitigated and controlled, but the company did not specify what technology will be used. It also plans to use green hydrogen—hydrogen formed through electrolysis powered by renewable electricity, without GHG emissions—to displace or replace natural gas and gray hydrogen consumption. Micron says it has a global target to achieve a 42 percent reduction in GHG emissions from operations by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050.
