U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer announced a new $750 million preliminary investment for Wolfspeed from the CHIPS and Science Bill. Wolfspeed, located in Marcy, is the lead silicon carbide chip manufacturer in the U.S.
The funding is meant to boost Wolfspeed’s ongoing upstate expansion, as well as help to build a North Carolina facility that will send chip “wafers” to the Marcy Nanocenter to be finished.
Shawna Papale, acting president of economic development nonprofit Mohawk Valley Edge, says the investments across the state will provide enough jobs that people will no longer have to leave the region for employment.
“And they’re all good-paying jobs,” Papale said. “The important thing people should remember is [every job doesn’t] have to have a Ph.D. The jobs in the semiconductor industry are technicians all the way up to engineers. The primary number of jobs are in that tech level.”
Schumer says the funding will allow for the Marcy Nanocenter site to have the most advanced equipment in the world.