Micron recently announced that it would be cutting their workforce by 10% in 2023. How does this affect the $100 billion chip plant complex announced for Clay?
Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon says not to worry, as most of the Micron workforce is internationally based and part of the reason they chose Clay is to diversify their risk in manufacturing. He says like other industries, the semiconductor industry goes through economic cycles.
"In 2020 and 2021, and even in 2022, you saw a huge successful years in the semiconductor industry because they were making so many chips," McMahon said. "The problem was there was an artificial demand because their customers were buying more than they needed. So, 2023 is going to be a down year in the semiconductor industry."
McMahon said they negotiated the deal with Micron knowing the semiconductor company may have to make cuts in the short term, but he said the White Pine location is on track to be ready for production in 2026.
"That doesn't impact our plans whatsoever," McMahon said. "We actually in our construction schedule when we negotiated this deal with Micron, factored all of that in, and we understood that they might have to make cuts in the short term. That doesn't affect our project at all."
Micron says it expects the demand for chips to nearly double by 2030. The Micron chip plant in Clay is expected to bring 9,000 new Micron jobs with it.
