DoD awards New York–based consortium $40 million for semiconductor-workforce training, equipment

A New York–based consortium will use $40 million in federal funding to bolster workforce-training programs for the semiconductor industry and add new microelectronics equipment.

The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) Microelectronic Commons Program.

This funding is one of the first major CHIPS awards from the CHIPS & Science Act and will help establish the infrastructure of a semiconductor hub, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D–N.Y.) and Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday.

The consortium — known as the Northeast Regional Defense Technology Hub (NORDTech) — is led by NY CREATES, the University at Albany’s College of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering (CNSE), Cornell University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), and IBM.

NORDTech will bring together academia, industry, and government organizations to help boost New York’s chips industry to spur innovation, attract new companies, strengthen the workforce, and bolster the industry, according to Schumer’s office.

“This first-ever Department of Defense Microelectronics Commons Hub award is booster fuel for the rocket that is Upstate New York’s booming microchip manufacturing industry,” Schumer said in a news release. “With New York as one of the first major CHIPS awards recipients, it is clear the feds are recognizing what I have long known, New York is the home of America’s semiconductor future. This $40 million Microelectronic Commons Hub will make sure research is turned into new companies and new jobs and supercharge New York’s semiconductor workforce, adding new state-of-the-art lab equipment to facilities across the state, and bringing new discoveries from lab to fab.”

This funding comes from the $2 billion CHIPS for America Defense Fund which Schumer helped establish in his CHIPS & Science Act, his office noted.

“This transformative federal grant is not only a major investment in New York’s chips ecosystem — it’s an acknowledgment of everything we’ve accomplished so far to establish Chips Country in our state,” Hochul stipulated in the Schumer release. “From our groundbreaking Green CHIPS legislation to Micron’s historic $100 billion commitment for a new campus creating 50,000 jobs in Central New York, we are laying the groundwork for a global hub for semiconductor businesses right here in New York State.”