The White House announced Tuesday the creation of 12 regional tech hubs, including one in New York spanning the I-90 corridor between Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse.
The selection comes with a $40 million grant for the region and unlocks up to $8 million in state matching funds aimed at accelerating growth in the semiconductor industry.
“With this major investment, federal officials are shining a national spotlight and confirming what I have long known: that the future of American semiconductors runs through the heart of upstate New York, along the I-90 corridor,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said in a press release.
Schumer was in town with Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrortra and others in October to announce that the “NY SMART I-Corridor Tech Hub” had earned a federal designation that puts it in the running for one of these “implementation grants.” The regional hub encompasses the metropolitan areas of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Ithaca, Auburn and Batavia.
Schumer says the designation will help the upstate region compete for millions of dollars in federal funds for semiconductor manufacturing and workforce training.
In total, the Biden administration on Tuesday committed $504 million to regions in Colorado, Montana, Illinois, Nevada, South Florida and elsewhere, focused on industries such as clean energy, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and others, strengthening national and economic security.
The program is part of the CHIPS & Science Act championed by Schumer and signed into law in 2022.
“With this transformative federal grant, New York is taking another major step toward building chip country in our state,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement. “This grant will help bring the next generation of semiconductor research, manufacturing and job training to Upstate and unlock even more funding — in addition to our other state investments — to attract chip manufacturing companies and jobs.”
This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.
