At the edge of a 1,400-acre tract of swamp, forest and former farmland just north of Syracuse, Micron Technology and public officials across the political spectrum broke ground Friday on what’s being called the largest private development in New York state history.
For Micron, riding a wave of record profits and bolstered by $25 billion in taxpayer subsidies, it marked the first ceremonial step to building its largest memory chip plant.
The groundbreaking comes more than three years after Micron announced it had chosen central New York for its biggest expansion ever in the United States. Nearly all of the company’s chips are made in Asia.
Upstate New York’s legendary winters didn’t disappoint: Wind chills dipped to about 10 degrees Friday morning and the ground was covered with at least half a foot of fresh lake effect snow blown in from Lake Ontario, where Micron will draw its water.
“That is a perfect day,” Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said of the fresh snow and sun that broke through before the ceremony began. He thanked the Democratic and Republican officials in the audience who both recruited Micron to Upstate New York and helped pass the federal legislation that paved the way for onshoring more computer chipmaking in the nation.
“It shows that when it comes to restoring American manufacturing,” he said, “we are clearly one team.”
Micron says it plans to build four chipmaking factories in Clay by 2041 to churn out billions of tiny computer chips used in cars, cell phones, appliances and, increasingly, data centers and artificial intelligence.
“The site will soon hum with activity,” Mehrotra said. “It will become a thriving technology hub, generating tens of thousands of jobs here, transforming the region.”
Shortly before noon, Mehrotra joined with Gov. Kathy Hochul, Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and County Executive Ryan McMahon for the ceremonial dirt-tossing with silver shovels.
They did it four times for the cameras, then an excavator behind them dumped a load of dirt into a dump truck with a Micron icon on its side. It was 12 degrees. Schumer wore a Buffalo Bills hat and an orange Syracuse tie.
Before the outdoor festivities, Lutnick, whose department will oversee the disbursal of about $20 billion in taxpayer subsidies to Micron over the next decade or so, took the stage and injected politics into a heated tent set up on the former farmland in northern Onondaga County.
“It is great to be in Central New York,” Lutnick said, “which, of course, you all know, is the heart of Trump country.” The applause afterward was tepid.
“It’s a historic day today,” Lutnick continued. “Because this fab, mega fab, is going to be the largest investment in the history, the largest single investment in the history of the great state of New York. So imagine that being right here, rebuilding and growing in the heart of Syracuse. That’s fantastic.”
Schumer, a Democrat and the Senate’s former majority leader, thanked McMahon, a Republican, for his partnership in working to get Micron to move to the Syracuse area.
“I want to give him some thanks, because he really helped prepare this site,” said Schumer, who ushered through the CHIPS and Science Act in 2022 that gave Micron the impetus to build factories in the United States.
“We will look back generations,” Schumer added. “This was a turning point for Central New York, for Upstate New York, and for the United States of America, because, because what’s happening here is going to give the United States the lead in semiconductor manufacturing for generations.”
Hochul, who went to Syracuse University in the 1970s, noted how at that time manufacturing was fleeing cities in Upstate New York. As she took the microphone, she quipped that this was really Hochul country. The applause was louder than for the secretary’s jab.
Micron’s arrival and its promise of a resurgence of manufacturing in Central New York, Hochul continued, is a dream come true.
“I could not be prouder,” Hochul said. “This is the day we rise up New York.”
The $52 billion, bipartisan CHIPS Act was designed to bring back to the U.S. the manufacture of computer chips essential to modern life and national security. Micron was one of the big winners, securing a grant of more than $6 billion to build factories in New York and at its headquarters in Idaho.
Construction of the first of two fabs in Boise is well underway, with production expected to start next year. Micron announced this year in a new deal with the Trump administration that it would build a second factory in Boise that would open before any of the New York factories.
Late last year, Micron announced that the Clay fabrication plants, or fabs, would be delayed by two to three years. The first is now set to start production in 2030; the second, in 2033.
The moment is about more than today, McMahon said. It’s about helping Micron continue to grow as a memory chip leader, he said. And it’s about making sure Central New Yorkers share in the expected largess.
“This is truly about the American worker and opportunity,” McMahon said. “But the reality is, this is about the national security of this country first and foremost. And by this investment here today, America will lead the world in AI dominance, and that means the world will literally be a safer and better place.”
Micron says it will spend more than $51 billion to build two fabrication plants, or fabs, by 2033. Taxpayer subsidies from federal, state and local governments would cover about half of those costs.
The company says it could spend another $50 billion to build a third and fourth fab by 2041, although there is no public money allotted for those.
Micron’s project here underwent a two-year, 20,000-page environmental review that was wrapped up in November. Since then, Micron has obtained the wide variety of necessary construction approvals from the federal, state and local governments.
If Micron keeps its promises, the impact on Central New York would be enormous. Micron says it would employ 9,000 people – nearly as many as Upstate Medical University, now the region’s biggest employer.
Up to 40,000 spinoff jobs could be created, from those in semiconductor supply chains to hotels to schools. Construction would require more than 4,000 workers during peak construction periods.
The groundbreaking comes as Micron, founded in the basement of a dentist’s office in Boise in 1978, is soaring on the demand for artificial intelligence chips. Micron has recently posted record sales and profits, and even bailed out of the consumer market to preserve its production for bigger profits in AI. Investors have noticed: Micron’s stock price has tripled in the past year.
Site preparation in Clay is expected to start within days. The first task for Micron’s initial contractor, Gilbane Co., is to start clearing 445 acres of forest. Gilbane will have to hurry: All tree-cutting must halt between March 31 and Nov. 1 because two species of endangered bats use the site to raise their young during the warmer months.
This year, Micron will need to haul in about 2 million yards of gravel-like fill to level and stabilize the site, which contains about 200 acres of wetlands. That will be done mostly by truck, with more than 500 trucks going in and out of the site every day on two-lane roads.