ALBANY – Upstate New York is likely to be a major beneficiary of federal legislation that would inject $52 billion to promote growth in the domestic semiconductor chip manufacturing industry, US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said. D-NY.
About 80 semiconductor companies are already present in New York, with more than 34,000 employees collectively, Schumer said.
But the number of jobs would be greatly expanded through efforts aimed at putting the upstate region in competition with California’s Silicon Valley as a high-tech hub, the senator added.
Schumer argued that the country’s semiconductor industry is crucial to its future and security, with the interior of the state an ideal location for such investment.
“China is trying to dominate this sector,” Schumer told reporters on a Zoom conference call. “We cannot leave them to our national security.”
He predicted that an increase in semiconductor chip production at domestic production facilities will help tame inflation and reduce supply chain headaches that have dogged many industries, including computer manufacturing and electric batteries.
“There is so much shortage that there is an order backlog and then the price goes up,” Schumer said in response to an inquiry from CNHI. “We produce enough chips, the price will drop a lot. It will make cars, appliances, batteries and everything else cheaper.”
There is even a connection between chip shortages and escalating food prices, with trucking companies impacted by restrictions in the microchip supply chain, increasing overhead costs for these companies and translating into increases in the price of food products, said Schumer.
Schumer said he predicts that western New York specifically will become one of 10 tech hubs in the country that would evolve from the bipartisan move to provide new incentives for the chip industry to expand.
Other regions he mentioned include the Mohawk Valley, Central New York, the Capital Region and the Hudson Valley, with the SUNY Oneonta campus, Binghamton University, Cornell University, the University at Buffalo all deriving benefits from the relationships that would be fostered with the industry. technology, Schumer said.
“The bottom line is that every region of New York State will have dramatic benefits that they haven’t seen in years, in terms of jobs, if this bill passes, and it will pass,” Schumer said.
The link between the technology race and national security has become such a prominent issue in federal government circles that earlier this month Schumer scheduled a briefing for all senators on the need to make the nation a leader in global innovation.
The Biden administration has also signaled that new support for the semiconductor industry is vital in dealing with inflation and supply chain constraints.
The latest legislation has been described as a scaled-down version of an earlier, broader measure that has faced objections from some top Republicans.
The project’s ingredients include $10 billion to be funneled into developing regional technology hubs, a 25% tax credit for semiconductor manufacturing and the equipment used to make them, about $500 million for a secure communications program, $200 million for employee training and more than $1 billion for wireless innovations.
Only 12% of chips are now manufactured domestically, compared with 37% in the 1990s, according to Schumer’s office. East Asia-based companies account for 75% of global semiconductor production.
Two weeks ago, Schumer faced intense pressure from Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas, who argued that the Senate Majority Leader had undermined the legislation by using it to have a “party spending spree.” Negotiations continued and the reworked bill cleared a procedural step on Tuesday night, in a vote of 64 to 34.
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