The first major funding awards for the federal tech hub program are expected as early as this month. His office says U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.) on May 30 personally met with U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to make his final push to deliver funding for upstate New York through the Tech Hubs […]
The first major funding awards for the federal tech hub program are expected as early as this month.
His office says U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.) on May 30 personally met with U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to make his final push to deliver funding for upstate New York through the Tech Hubs Phase II Implementation grant competition.
It was early March when Schumer announced the Buffalo-Rochester-Syracuse tech hub had submitted its application for up to $54 million in phase-two implementation funding.
The tech hub is officially known as the NY SMART I-Corridor, which is short for New York Semiconductor Manufacturing and Research Technology Innovation Corridor Consortium.
The senator launched his push in March to make NY SMART I-Corridor one of the program’s first implementation award winners for up to $54 million in federal funding to advance their semiconductor cluster in upstate New York.
The project also includes Ithaca and supports the broader Upstate NY semiconductor ecosystem, Schumer’s office noted.
“The Buffalo-Rochester-Syracuse region is driving Upstate NY forward to be a global hub for the semiconductor industry and the Tech Hub funding is a key to help unlock the region’s full potential to bring this industry back to our shores. That’s why I personally met with Secretary Raimondo, with awards expected soon, to make the case for why this funding is critical to bolstering our state’s booming semiconductor ecosystem,” Schumer said in the May 30 announcement.
In the meeting, Schumer made the case that following his announcement with President Biden last month of the major $6.1 billion CHIPS investment to move forward Micron’s historic mega fab project in the town of Clay, “this was the time to double-down on federal support to make that and other microchip projects across Upstate NY a success and that is exactly what the Phase II implementation award would do,” Schumer’s office said.
Because of “significant investment” from Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU), GlobalFoundries, and Wolfspeed, supply-chain companies from around the world are looking to invest in the Upstate region to support these major new fab projects, per Schumer’s office.
Those include Japanese supplier companies that Schumer recently met with to pitch New York, his office added.
