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New York awarded $9.4 million to help small businesses tap into the semiconductor supply chain

A poster for the NY SMART I-Corridor Tech Hub, or what’s been dubbed the “NY Semiconductor Superhighway,” as seen at Inficon in DeWitt on July 2. On Wednesday, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D–N.Y.) announced $9.4 million to help small businesses across the upstate region to get involved in the semiconductor supply chain. (Eric Reinhardt / CNYBJ)

New York State has been awarded $9.4 million in federal funding, with $1.5 million in matching funds from Empire State Development (ESD), to help small businesses across the upstate region tap into and grow in the semiconductor and microelectronics industries.

The new program will “help maximize the local impact” of the billions in investment from firms across the region, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D–N.Y.) said in the announcement. The senator cited companies that include Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) in the town of Clay; Wolfspeed Inc. (NYSE: WOLF) in Marcy; and GlobalFoundries in Malta in Saratoga County “thanks to his CHIPS & Science Law by breaking down barriers to help small businesses enter and expand into the semiconductor supply chain.”

With this funding, New York will implement the Semiconductor Growth Access Program (SGAP). The program will provide technical assistance — including legal, financial, and accounting services — to existing small businesses to “grow in or pivot” to the semiconductor and microelectronic supply chain.

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The program will help those businesses “upgrade and expand” their equipment, building a chip-manufacturing cluster across the upstate region, Schumer’s office said. Additionally, SGAP will create a shared regional purchasing roundtable of large manufacturers and tier 1 suppliers, designed to provide regular access to purchasing opportunities for participating businesses.

The SGAP program will work alongside the Supply Chain Activation Network (SCAN), a project of the Buffalo-Rochester-Syracuse NY SMART-I Corridor Tech Hub, for which Schumer announced $40 million of federal funding to support during a July 2 visit to Inficon’s location in DeWitt. The program will also support semiconductor supply-chain growth with partners at Mohawk Valley EDGE and the Capital Region Center for Economic Growth (CEG).

Schumer believes small businesses across the upstate region want to enter the semiconductor industry, “but they can’t do it alone.”

“This major $9.4 million in federal funding will help provide critical technical assistance to boost effort to make it happen. This is how we maximize the benefit of companies like Micron, GlobalFoundries, and Wolfspeed’s expansions in Upstate NY, helping existing businesses grow and adapt to lead in the next frontier of technology. This will help boost efforts along the I-90 Tech Hub I secured and help Upstate NY build a robust supply chain from Buffalo to Utica to Albany that further positions the region as a global center for chip manufacturing,” the senator said in the announcement.

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