Dive brief:
- The The Biden administration announced a $1.5 billion funding award to New York-based chipmaker GlobalFoundries on Monday as part of the CHIPS and Science Act.
- The funds will go toward GlobalFoundries’ $11.6 billion expansion of its Malta, New York, manufacturing facility, as well as upgrades to its Essex Junction, Vermont site, the company said in an announcement .
- The Malta expansion will also receive $575 million in tax credits of the New York Green CHIPS initiative to reduce construction and operation costsGovernor Kathy Hochul announced on Monday.
Diving knowledge:
As part of its investment plans, GlobalFoundries will expand its existing facilities in Malta as well as build a new 358,000 square foot semiconductor manufacturing facility.
The company’s existing facilities in Malta produce 400,000 wafers per year. The new investment will add critical technologies used at GlobalFoundries’ Singapore and Germany facilities to support the US auto industry as more automakers roll out. transition from mechanical to electronic systems.
Last year, GlobalFoundries and General Motors signed an exclusive supplier agreement to power GM’s electric vehicles by producing higher-quality chips at its facility in Malta, New York.
The expansion of the Malta project is expected to create more than 1,500 manufacturing jobs and tincrease the existing capacity of the Malta campus over the next 10 years.
The Essex Junction site will improve its facilities and expand its capacity to produce high-volume next-generation gallium nitride semiconductors for electric vehicles, power grids, data centers, smartphones and other technologies.
With the Essex Junction and Malta site upgrades, the company is expected to increase production to 1 million wafers per year.
“These proposed investments, along with the investment tax credit (ITC) for semiconductor manufacturing, are critical to the next chapter in the story of GlobalFoundries and our industry,” said President and CEO Thomas Caulfield in a statement. “With new onshore capacity and technology on the horizon, as an industry we must now turn our attention to increasing demand for US-made chips and growing our talented US semiconductor workforce.”
GlobalFoundries funding is the third and largest award granted under the CHIPS and Science Act. In December, the White House awarded its first grant under the law for 35 million dollars to defense contractor BAE Systems. In January, the Department of Commerce announced plans to offer $162 million at semiconductor manufacturer Microchip Technology.
“It was the shortage of semiconductors during the COVID-19 pandemic that drove up prices for consumers and caused the shutdown of auto manufacturing facilities across the country,” the secretary said of Commerce Gina Raimondo in a statement. “Thanks to the CHIPS and Science Act, we are working to incorporate these critical technologies to strengthen the supply of domestic chips that are essential to the manufacturing of automobiles, electronics and national defense systems in New York, Vermont and the states from all over the world. country.”
As part of the agreement with the state, GlobalFoundries must invest at least $60 million in workforce training and community investments. Investments could include academic research and development projects, workforce and talent development, on-site child care, K-12 STEM educational programming and curriculum grants and tuition reimbursement, according to the state announcement.
New York is home more than 70 semiconductor companies, including an IBM research facility in Albany and an Applied Materials Engineering Technology Acceleration Center. The state has also been busy enacting legislation and working with semiconductor giants over the past two years to attract more investment.
Last month, the state forged a $10 billion partnership with semiconductor giants such as IBM, Micron and Applied Materials to build a chip research and development center in Albany, New York.
