Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer came to Albany today to make another push for President Biden to name upstate New York the epicenter of American chip manufacturing.
Visiting the SUNY Poly Albany Nanotech Complex, the New York Democrat told reporters the Capital Region is primed to "reap the rewards and become the foundation for the future of America's semiconductor leadership.” He pointed to GlobalFoundries’ expansion plans for its Saratoga County campus.
“Gonna be thousands and thousands of new jobs at the second chip fab in Malta, they have orders already till 2026," Schumer said. "If you could think of what you wanted to locate here, to create good paying jobs, the new chip fab is at the top of the list to create prosperity. And it's going to mean thousands. And these are union jobs, both union construction jobs, and additional jobs in the fab.But then there is also the NSTC, the National Semiconductor Technology Center. For the United States to remain number one in the world, we have to be at the front of the line when it comes to research. And the federal government has determined there should be one national center to lead that research.”
Schumer says he will use his clout to ensure the NSTC is located in the Capital Region. He notes that some individual companies want it, but he believes it shouldn't be at an individual company, “because they'll use the research for themselves.”
IBM Senior Vice President and Director of Research Darío Gil agrees.
“That's why we have been working with a broad coalition to bring a set of partners across the different sectors, such that we can put the bids for the NSTC," said Gil. "So what that would mean in practice is come 2023, we would put the teams, infrastructure required, to be able to exercise the mission. What are some of the directions that will take place? Building the next generation of transistor technology of logic, the best in the duration of memory technology, of packaging, of design, that's what NSTC will do. And Albany will be a big part of creating this future.”
Schumer emphasized the urgency of ensuring China doesn't become the world leader in chip manufacturing.
“Our researchers are the best in the world dollar for dollar, we do better than the Chinese person for person, we do better than the Chinese," Schumer said. "But if they're putting $30 billion into this, and we put a billion which is what was happening before, they're gonna get ahead of us. So we will stay ahead of China. Once this bill is signed into law, which it will be in the next few days, the president was going to do it this week, but COVID got in the way.”
