A $10 billion public-private expansion is underway that positions the Albany NanoTech Complex to make Upstate New York the global leader in semiconductor research, development, and emerging manufacturing. NY Creates leads the initiative, which includes a combination of new facilities, workforce development, and partnerships with universities and industry in efforts to advance U.S. semiconductor capabilities and build out strong domestic supply chains. The campus is being upgraded to host leading-edge equipment, including advanced lithography tools that few locations worldwide can support.
This expansion is designed to attract private investment, support hundreds of high-tech jobs, and create a pipeline of skilled talent in engineering, materials science, and microelectronics. By the end of the decade, Albany NanoTech will host more advanced chip research and development than any other U.S. site, making the region a central player in next-generation semiconductor innovation. The campus will be used as a testbed for both industrial and academic partners to prototype, develop, and eventually produce next-generation, energy-efficient, high-performance chips.
NanoFab Reflection
Recently, NY Creates reached an important milestone in the expansion with the topping out of NanoFab Reflection, a $1 billion, 310,000-square-foot semiconductor research facility. Putting the last steel beam into place marks the building as structurally complete and starts the interior construction and installation of equipment. NanoFab Reflection will host the nation’s first publicly owned High NA EUV lithography system, enabling researchers and industry partners to create the next generation of smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient chips once the machine arrives in 2026.
Team effort
In a team effort with microchip companies, New York is launching a $10 billion investment to establish an advanced semiconductor research facility at Albany University. The planned facility houses some of the best chip-creating hardware worldwide.
The task of managing construction for this advanced semiconductor research facility at Albany University project has been assigned to NY Creates -a public benefit corporation set up under non-profit law. It’s also expected that they channelize state funding towards acquiring high tech machinery from ASML Holding.
With all necessary equipment installed, New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s office confirms that both the project and its partner companies would soon commence operations to produce nex-generation chips on site. The partners for this project include IBM along with Micron Technology, Applied Materials as well as Tokyo Electron.
The growth potential could foster New York’s bid to become a research hub under the previously passed Chips Act, which was given a $53 billion budget. Included in this act was $11 billion allocated specifically to set up a National Semiconductor Technology Center to stimulate indigenous chip research and development.
In more current events, the domestic production of chips, as well as supportive research, have taken priority by the U.S. federal and state administrations due to the rising concern over China’s growing dominance in this field. As chips start to play integral roles in advanced defense weaponry and complicated artificial intelligence systems, their significance is escalating in geopolitical importance.
Chip-making equipment from ASML to be used in facility at Albany NanoTech
ASML’s sophisticated equipment harnesses the power of lasers and tiny tin droplets in an intricate procedure to engrave transistor patterns onto silicon. Presently, their extreme ultraviolet light (EUV) machines boast unmatched capabilities enabling chipset manufacturers to produce transistors merely a few nanometers long.
Embarking in the 1990s, the Albany complex’s project has massively grown throughout different stages – a plan that would result in around 700 job opportunities and invite at least $9 billion of private capital injection according to Hochul’s administration. New York is laying out an investment worth $1 billion for acquiring ASML equipment alongside erecting a facility inclusive of a vast chip-manufacturing area spanning across fifty thousand square feet. A two-year timeframe is projected for completion.
Several notable chip manufacturing facilities are scattered across New York, driven by the operations of GlobalFoundries, ON Semiconductor, and Wolfspeed. Micron has in its plans a potential investment estimated at nearly $100 billion for a vast factory close to Syracuse; it’s banking on acquiring financial backing through the Chips Act for this enterprise. In addition to that, state officials have extended helping hands with incentives aimed toward such production complexes.
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