Micron CEO outlines why his firm chose Clay for chip plant

SYRACUSE — The CEO of Micron Technology Inc. CEO (NASDAQ: MU) said his company chose the White Pine Commerce Park in Clay to build a semiconductor-manufacturing facility “for several reasons.”

They include the region’s “rich pool of diverse talent,” including those communities that are underrepresented in technology jobs and a “significant” military population.

“Over the years, Micron has found that veterans, in particular, have strong skill sets for the technical roles needed in semiconductor manufacturing,” Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said in addressing a gathering at Syracuse University’s National Veterans Resource Center on Oct. 4.

The firm plans to invest up to $100 billion over the next 20-plus years on a semiconductor manufacturing campus in Clay.

Micron also values the region’s education sector for partnerships with local K-12 programs, community colleges, and leading four-year colleges for top engineering and technical talent.

In addition, Mehrotra said Central New York offers urban and outdoor lifestyles, affordable cost of living, and a strong local school system. 

The region also provides “access to clean, reliable power and water to support a project of this massive scale while achieving our long-term environmental goals,” he noted.

Plus, the New York State government offered “comprehensive incentives over the life of this project” to support hiring and capital investments, he added.

“We expect to begin preparing the site in Clay in 2023 and begin construction in 2024. Production output would ramp in latter half of the decade to meet industry demand,” Mehrotra said. 

In describing his firm, Mehrotra said it is one of the “world’s top semiconductor companies” founded in Boise, Idaho more than four decades ago.

It designs and manufactures memory and storage semiconductors, which are “tiny but powerful” and “at the heart of nearly every computing system” from smartphones to driver-safety systems in cars to “the vast data centers and communications systems critical to everyday life.”

“Micron is an innovation powerhouse with more than 50,000 U.S. patents,” Mehrotra contended. “And the only memory manufacturer based in the U.S. We use state-of-the-art equipment in vast clean rooms to create impossibly intricate circuits at massive scale. What we do is among the most advanced and difficult manufacturing processes anywhere in the world.”

Mehrotra on Oct. 4 joined Gov. Kathy Hochul, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D–N.Y.), and Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon for the announcement.

Hochul’s office called it “one of the largest economic development projects in U.S. history” and described it as a “transformational public-private partnership” with Micron. 

The Boise, Idaho–based technology firm’s first-phase investment of $20 billion is planned by the end of this decade, with the $100 billion total investment stretching over two decades, per Hochul’s office. 

The effort will create nearly 50,000 jobs statewide — 9,000 new “high-paying” Micron jobs with an average annual salary of over $100,000 and over 40,000 community jobs — and create “thousands and thousands” of prevailing wage construction jobs. When complete, the complex will include the nation’s largest clean-room space at about 2.4 million square feet, “the size of nearly 40 football fields.”

Incentives

To attract Micron, Empire State Development (ESD) has offered a package of performance-based incentives up to $5.5 billion in Green CHIPS Excelsior tax credits over two phases over 20 years. The “targeted incentives” are directly tied to Micron creating 9,000 new jobs, investing $100 billion, and meeting the Green CHIPS community benefits package and sustainability standards, per Hochul’s office. 

The agreement also includes a commitment by New York State to invest $200 million for necessary road and other infrastructure improvements surrounding the campus, and $100 million in funding for community benefits as part of the $500 million Green CHIPS Community Fund. 

In addition, the New York Power Authority (NYPA) board of trustees will review a power-allocation award from NYPA’s low-cost ReCharge NY power program at a future public meeting. 

The Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency and Micron will enter into a 49-year PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) agreement and abatement of state and local sales tax on construction expenses. 

The Onondaga County Department of Water and Environment Protection and the Onondaga County Water Authority will make necessary water and wastewater infrastructure improvements over the project lifecycle to support the project and surrounding community. 

In addition, Onondaga County will provide a $5 million façade grant and a $10 million investment in conjunction with Syracuse University to establish a semiconductor research and development initiative to be located at the Syracuse Center of Excellence. 

Onondaga County will also provide a $5 million workforce-sustainability grant to be disbursed over 10 years to help fund local skills development for Onondaga County residents, in partnership with local institutions such as Onondaga Community College. It will also kick in a $5 million workforce-attraction grant to assist with hiring during the initial project ramp-up.

Schumer reaction

“With the CHIPS and Science bill I wrote and championed as the fuse, 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. 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 said. “This is our Erie Canal moment. Just as the original Erie Canal did centuries ago, this 21st century Erie Canal will flow through the heart of Central New York and redefine Upstate New York’s place in the global economy for generations to come. 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 megafab overseas.”