Tech companies and public officials in upstate New York are celebrating a boost in federal funding to create a “semiconductor superhighway.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer told a crowd at Inficon in East Syracuse Tuesday that what he calls the upstate New York "tech hub" is going to get $40 million.
"The ‘Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse tech hub’ is the first in the nation to receive a major federal 'tech hub' award from my CHIPs and Science law,” Schumer said.
Out of 400 applications, only 31 communities received a “tech hub” designation. Only a dozen won federal funding.
Schumer said he’s been working on the tech hub project for years.
"We did not want just New York City and San Francisco and Boston to benefit from all the tech stuff that was coming, and particularly from chip fab."
The money is earmarked to improve workforce training initiatives, empower start-ups, strengthen existing companies, and help attract new supply chains.
Inficon President Hannah Henley said she’s excited about the growth of the tech industry in her own backyard.
"These are the chips that are going to make a difference in the future of healthcare, agriculture, mobility, as well as computing. And there's no better thing to work on,” she said.
And while Schumer said this will bring in thousands of new jobs and boost the local economy, Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh said it’s also about people.
"We want to maximize the benefit of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to the people here who are now working in addition to the people who will come," said Walsh.
Schumer said in a few years, a quarter of all the chips manufactured in the U.S. will be made in upstate New York, and he praised officials in Syracuse, Buffalo, and Rochester for being willing to work together on the application process.
“It’s the dawn of a new era of collaboration across New York, just as all the cities and communities had to cooperate to get the Erie Canal built, we’re all cooperating now to make I-90 the Semiconductor Superhighway,” said Schumer.
