Building on favorable political developments over the past week, President Biden on Thursday celebrated a $6.1 billion grant to Micron Technology to reduce U.S. dependence on Asian countries by boosting U.S. semiconductor supplies. He said he could.
“New factories are being built all over the country,” Biden said at the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science and Technology in Syracuse, New York, adding, “Communities like Syracuse are writing the story of America's great comeback.” he said.
Biden administration officials said the grant to Micron, the latest in a multibillion-dollar grant federal authorities have provided to chipmakers in recent weeks, will help the company build two state-of-the-art chip factories in New York. It will help build another facility in Idaho. The federal government will also provide Micron with a loan of up to $7.5 billion.
Expanding domestic semiconductor production is a key goal for Biden, whose economic policy agenda is largely focused on strengthening U.S. manufacturing and restoring jobs that have moved overseas in recent decades. . Only about 10% of the world's semiconductors are manufactured in the United States, down from about 37% in 1990.
The grant was announced last week by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., but Biden's visit is an opportunity to celebrate another victory in what has been a successful week for Biden. Ta. On Wednesday, he won support from the North American Construction Workers Union, largely due to his bipartisan infrastructure policy. He also reaffirmed the center of his foreign policy agenda, having just signed a $95.3 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan after months of gridlock in Congress.
And while Mr. Biden is pushing ahead with efforts to strengthen manufacturing in Syracuse, his Republican opponent in the 2024 election, former President Donald J. Trump, is just 320 miles southeast of New York City. In court, he was facing a state criminal trial on the following charges: Business records continued to be falsified.
“My predecessor and my friends in the MAGA Republican Party have a very different view,” Biden said, adding that some Republicans, including New York Rep. Brandon Williams and Rep. Elise Stefanik, have joined CHIPS. He added that he was criticizing the law. “They probably aren't going to be here today to celebrate.”
Funding from this grant will be used by a bipartisan group of lawmakers in 2022 to re-establish the United States as a leader in the production of semiconductors, the small components that power everything from phones and computers to cars and fighter jets. It originates from the CHIPS Act, which was passed in 2007. The law gave the Commerce Department $39 billion in grants to encourage semiconductor manufacturers to build and expand manufacturing facilities across the United States.
As part of the new announcement, federal officials said Micron plans to spend $50 billion over the next six years to develop its first three plants, and the company plans to invest up to $125 billion in the U.S. over the next 20 years. He said he plans to do so. more. The company said it may build up to four manufacturing plants in New York.
“We are rebuilding upstate New York's economy one microchip at a time,” Schumer said Thursday. He said the investment is expected to create approximately 50,000 jobs in the Syracuse area. “This is the largest single private investment in New York state history.”
Micron's award brings total announced federal grants to more than $29 billion. This month, U.S. authorities awarded Samsung up to $6.4 billion in subsidies. Other major chipmakers have also won awards recently, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Intel. GlobalFoundries, Microchip Technology and BAE Systems were the recipients of his first three awards.
Micron is also expected to apply for federal tax credits that could cover 25% of the cost of building the factory and equipping it with production equipment. The Idaho plant is expected to be ready for production in 2026, Biden administration officials said. The first factory in New York is expected to open in 2028, and the second factory will be ready for production in 2029.
At least $40 million of the grant will be set aside for Micron to develop and train its workforce. Biden also announced Thursday the creation of four new “workforce hubs” in upstate New York, Michigan, Milwaukee and Philadelphia. These hubs are meant to train and connect workers to jobs created by new federal investments.
Micron was the last U.S. supplier of chips called dynamic random access memory (DRAM). These chips play an important role in computers and smartphones, acting like scratchpads that temporarily store data that needs to be retrieved frequently. His cutting-edge DRAM chips are essential for advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and wireless communications. All of these cutting-edge chips are currently manufactured in Asia, but administration officials said Micron's investment would allow the United States to supply its own supplies.
Micron does the majority of its manufacturing in Taiwan, Japan, and Singapore. The company's CEO, Sanjay Mehrotra, has been working to ramp up production in the U.S. and win government subsidies for its expansion. But Mehrotra reiterated that the timing of such spending closely tracks supply and demand and reflects the company's success in winning federal grants.
“Micron's cutting-edge memory is the foundation for meeting the growing demand for artificial intelligence,” Merota said in a statement. “We are proud to be making significant investments in memory manufacturing in the United States.”
Don Clark I contributed a report from San Francisco.