Micron to invest $100 billion in New York megafab

Micron states in a press release that it intends to invest up to USD 100 billion over the next 20-plus years to construct a new megafab in Clay, New York, with the first phase investment of USD 20 billion planned by the end of this decade. 

Micron’s investment in Onondaga County, New York, will add to the company’s previously announced high-volume manufacturing fab in Boise, Idaho – which Evertiq reported on. The site could eventually include four 600,000 square foot cleanrooms, for a total of 2.4 million square feet of cleanroom space – the size of approximately 40 U.S. football fields.

Micron says its New York megafab is part of its strategy to gradually increase US-made leading-edge DRAM production to 40% of the company’s global output over the next decade. Site preparation work will start in 2023, construction will begin in 2024 and production output will ramp in the latter half of the decade, gradually increasing in line with industry demand trends. 

“I am grateful to President Biden and his Administration for making the CHIPS and Science Act a priority, to Senator Schumer and a bipartisan coalition in Congress for passing the legislation, and to Governor Hochul and County Executive McMahon for the local and state partnerships that made this investment possible. 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 the press release. “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.”

The USD 5.5 billion in incentives from the state of New York over the life of the project alongside anticipated federal grants and tax credits from the CHIPS and Science Act is said to be critical to support hiring and capital investment.

“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,” says Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, and continues. “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. Today’s announcement is the result of my long fight to bring manufacturing back to Upstate New York. The bottom line is that without the CHIPS and Science legislation, Micron would have decided to build its mega-fab overseas.”