SYRACUSE — For the second time in less than two years, U.S. President Joseph Biden visited Central New York to tout the forthcoming arrival of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) in Central New York, bringing the promise of thousands of new jobs and a transformed regional economy.

The 46th president on April 25 formally announced a $6.1 billion funding award for Micron during a visit to the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science & Technology (the MOST) in downtown Syracuse.

Biden also used the visit to announce Syracuse as one of four additional Investing in America Workforce Hubs, and the Syracuse hub will focus on semiconductor manufacturing.

The president visited the region on official business when he visited Onondaga Community College in October 2022 following the announcement earlier that month that Micron had chosen the town of Clay to build a massive semiconductor campus.

Micron funding

The billions in funding will come through the federal CHIPS and Science Act for Micron projects in both the Town of Clay and in Boise, Idaho, where the chip manufacturer is headquartered.

The U.S. Department of Commerce has reached a preliminary agreement with Micron to provide the funding.

This money will support the construction of two fabs in Clay and one fab in Boise, Idaho. The funding is part of $50 billion in private investment by 2030 as the first step towards Micron’s investment of up to $125 billion across both states over the next two decades to build a “leading-edge memory manufacturing ecosystem,” per a White House fact sheet about Biden’s visit.

“In all, it’s going to create over 70,000 jobs across both states, at least 9,000 of which are construction jobs; [and] 11,000 manufacturing jobs,” Biden said in his remarks before a packed crowd at the MOST.

Biden also recalled the shortage of semiconductors during the coronavirus pandemic and noted that semiconductors are smaller than the tip of a human finger.

“[They] help power everything in our lives from smartphones to cars to dishwashers, satellites,” Biden said. “We invented those chips here in America … We made them move. We modernized them.” 

The U.S. at one time produced 40 percent of the global semiconductor market’s chips, Biden added. “But over time, we stopped making them.”

When the pandemic shut down chip makers overseas, prices on a lot of products shot up, the president explained. In the U.S., a semiconductor shortage helped drive the surge in inflation in 2021 and contributed to long waits for several products. 

“Folks, I determined that I’m never going to let us be vulnerable to wait lines again,” Biden contended. “We’re going to make [them] here.” 

The funding will support the construction of the first two fabs of a planned four-fab “megafab” focused on leading-edge DRAM chip production at the White Pine Commerce Park in the town of Clay. Each fab will have 600,000 square feet of cleanrooms, totaling 2.4 million square feet of cleanroom space across the four facilities — “the largest amount of cleanroom space ever announced in the United States and the size of nearly 40 football fields,” per the White House fact sheet.

Sanjay Mehrotra, president and CEO of Micron Technology, called it an “historic moment for semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S.”

“Micron’s leading-edge memory is foundational to meeting the growing demands of artificial intelligence, and we are proud to be making significant memory manufacturing investments in the U.S., which will create many high-tech jobs,” Mehrotra said in a statement forwarded to the media ahead of the event. “We appreciate the foresight of U.S. President Joe Biden, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the bipartisan delegation in Congress that supported the CHIPS and Science Act. Their steadfast focus championing these strategic investments will ensure U.S. semiconductor competitiveness for generations to come.”

Micron established two project-labor agreements (PLAs) at both the New York and Idaho sites for construction of new fabrication facilities. Both PLAs are the “largest in each state’s history,” per the White House fact sheet.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul; Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon; U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D–N.Y.); and Micron’s Mehrotra spoke to the gathering ahead of Biden.

Workforce hub

Besides Syracuse, Biden also announced hubs for Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Detroit and Lansing, Michigan. 

The hubs complement five existing workforce hubs, including those in Phoenix, Arizona, and Columbus, Ohio that have supported new semiconductor training programs, per a White House fact sheet about Biden’s visit to Syracuse. These hubs seek to leverage and develop partnerships between companies, educational institutions, and labor unions on workforce development.

“And I know that Micron is also partnering with American Federation of Teachers to develop technology curricula for high schools in New York State,” the president said in his remarks at the MOST.

First Lady Jill Biden in 2023 announced the first five workforce hubs in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Phoenix, Arizona; Baltimore, Maryland; Columbus, Ohio; and Augusta, Georgia. 

“Thousands of workers will be training in these facilities,” Biden said.

Federal officials first discussed the announcement of Syracuse as a workforce hub during an April 24 press call with reporters in New York and Idaho ahead of the president’s visit to Syracuse.

“I worked with the Biden Administration to make Syracuse one of only a handful of locations around the country designated as a workforce hub, and that’s going to help deliver assistance to companies, educational institutions, labor unions … to build a pipeline of workers to fill the thousands of good-paying jobs being created,” U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D–N.Y.), said in the press call. “It’s one of the reasons that Micron was excited to come to Syracuse … they knew they’d have a good labor supply. The workforce hub designation will build on the major efforts Micron is already undertaking on its own to train a new generation of workers.”

Schumer went on to say, “Major funding from [the] CHIPS announcement will help support these workforce efforts and highlight Micron’s leadership in investing in workers in the entire region.”