The Biden administration announced Thursday that it reached a preliminary agreement with Idaho-based semiconductor manufacturer Micron, the latest in a series of investments through the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act.
President Biden will travel Thursday to Syracuse, N.Y., where he will tout the benefits of the agreement with Micron, which includes up to $6.1 billion in federal funding.
The investment will support the construction of two manufacturing hubs, one in Clay, N.Y., outside of Syracuse, and one in Boise, Idaho, where Micron is based. The Clay facility will focus on leading-edge DRAM — or dynamic random-access memory — chip production, while the Idaho facility will be a high-volume manufacturing hub that will produce DRAM chips and be located near the company’s existing research and development facility.
“With this proposed investment, we are working to deliver on one of the core objectives of President Biden’s CHIPS program – onshoring the development and production of the most advanced memory semiconductor technology which is crucial for safeguarding our leadership on artificial intelligence and protecting our economic and national security,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement.
The White House said the federal funding is expected to result in an investment by the manufacturing company of up to $125 billion across New York and Idaho over the next two decades. The two construction projects are expected to create more than 70,000 jobs, the administration said.
Thursday’s trip for Biden will mark his second time visiting Syracuse to focus on investments in semiconductor manufacturing, which has been a cornerstone of his economic agenda. He last visited the area in October 2022, when he also spoke about Micron’s planned investments in the region.
The Biden administration has in recent months been steadily rolling out new agreements with private companies to invest in semiconductor chip manufacturing in the United States, using funds from the CHIPS and Science Act, which passed with bipartisan support in 2022.
Biden has repeatedly touted the importance of the CHIPS law, citing the prevalence of microchips that are used in everyday technology such as phones, cars, home appliances and more. Officials have said the law is critical to bolster domestic production of the chips to make the U.S. less reliant on foreign supply chains.
The administration has previously struck preliminary agreements with Samsung, Intel, GlobalFoundries and Bae Systems.
Tyler Mitchell