Workers have begun breaking ground on the first manufacturing plant at Micron Technology’s $100 billion semiconductor manufacturing campus in Clay, New York, passing a key milestone for what is expected to become the nation’s largest chip manufacturing complex.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the foundation’s groundbreaking during a site visit at White Pine Commerce Park on July 9, saying construction reached the milestone less than six months after the January groundbreaking and more than a quarter ahead of the original plan.
“Today’s milestone marks another important step for Micron in Central New York, and what makes it even more remarkable is that we are here in July, months ahead of schedule, pouring the concrete foundation,” Hochul said in a statement.
Micron chairman, president and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said reaching the milestone ahead of schedule reflects “the speed and determination behind this project,” adding that the company aims to bring advanced memory manufacturing to central New York while strengthening the U.S. semiconductor supply chain.
In June, Micron announced that it had selected Bechtel as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the first phase of the project. At the time, the companies said Bechtel would immediately mobilize to the site and lead the delivery of EPC for the initial manufacturing plant.
Bechtel said it would deploy an integrated EPC delivery model that combines engineering, procurement, advanced digital construction technologies, modularization strategies and project controls to support schedule certainty, workforce coordination and operational readiness.
The company added that the semiconductor manufacturing facilities are among the most technically demanding industrial construction projects in the world due to their specialized clean rooms, high-purity process infrastructure, advanced electrical systems and vibration-sensitive foundations.
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Micron says it plans to invest up to $100 billion over the next few decades to develop a four-fab semiconductor manufacturing campus in central New York. State officials say the project is expected to create about 50,000 jobs statewide, including more than 4,500 construction jobs at its peak.
Separately, on July 9, Micron announced plans to invest up to $3 billion to strengthen the US semiconductor supply chain, including $500 million to support GlobalWafers’ 300mm silicon wafer manufacturing facility in Sherman, Texas, under a planned 10-year supply agreement.
During on-site coverage of the July 9 event, Micron senior director of program management Carson Henry told Spectrum News that each manufacturing plant will require “about four concrete Empire State Buildings” and enough reinforcing steel that, if laid end to end, would circle the world twice.
ENR previously reported that public environmental filings moved construction of the first manufacturing plant to 2026 after previous delays.
Neither Bechtel nor Micron immediately responded to ENR’s request for comment.
