WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has reached a deal to provide $6.1 billion in government support to Micron Technology to produce advanced memory computer chips in New York and Idaho.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., personally courted Micron to open what would eventually become a string of four chip factories near Syracuse in the town of Clay. He noted in an interview on Wednesday that the announcement was a sign for voters about how Democrats are revitalizing the manufacturing sector.
“It will be the largest memory chip factory in America,” Schumer said. “For the Syracuse area, this is probably the best thing to happen since the Erie Canal.”
The comparison to the 1825 infrastructure project that connected the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean is bold, but it speaks to the potential scale of economic impact and national security interests in an increasingly digital world.
Including government support, Micron plans to invest $100 billion in New York State over the next 20 years. The investment is estimated to create 9,000 direct jobs and 40,000 construction jobs. Micron has also announced plans for a $15 billion memory chip factory in its hometown of Boise, Idaho.
The funding comes from the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, which is intended to provide government support for new and expanded facilities being developed by Intel, TSMC, Samsung and Global Foundries, among others.
The law provided $52 billion to support the domestic semiconductor industry, reducing the risk that chip shortages during the pandemic could harm the U.S. economy and national security.
The Democratic administration has set a goal for 20% of the world’s advanced chips to be made in the United States and has restricted the flow of chips to China.
A senior Biden administration official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the deal before the official announcement, confirmed the agreement with Micron.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday in Pittsburgh discussed the importance of computer chips that power everything from weapons to artificial intelligence to home appliances such as refrigerators.
Biden noted that Republican Donald Trump, the former president and his election-year rival, had not been as aggressive in boosting the sector and limiting China’s access to chips.
“Despite all this tough talk about China, it never occurred to my predecessor to do any of that,” Biden told a group of steelworkers.
Trump has told his supporters that China was “afraid” of him for imposing tariffs on the country with the aim of supporting jobs in US factories. Biden has kept the tariffs in place and proposed plans on Wednesday to expand them on steel and aluminum.
“I took on communist China like no government in history,” Trump told supporters at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
