The world's largest silicon carbide fabrication facility opened in Marcy, Oneida County, on Monday. Wolfspeed's new facility at the Marcy Nanocenter has a goal of employing 600 people by the year 2029.

Since 1998, it's been years of hopes and visions, ups and downs, but now, the Mohawk Valley is home to the world's largest 200 mm silicon carbide fabrication facility.

Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente said it was the culmination of hard work by a lot of people.

"It really does set the mark," he said. "Anything that says 'world's largest' that's tied to this kind of manufacturing, that just changes the whole dynamics of Oneida County."

Wolfspeed's 200mm silicon carbide fab is the first tenant at Marcy Nanocenter. It comes at an opportune time, as there is a global shortage of the chips set to be produced there.

They are used in electric vehicles, mobile and industrial markets.

"As we cut the ribbon of this new fab today, we are unleashing new possibilities and ushering in a new era of energy efficiency with the transition in semiconductors from silicon to silicon carbide," Wolfspeed CEO Gregg Lowe said.

The company is also celebrating its new multi-year agreement with Lucid Motors to supply silicon carbide devices, which led to a unique ribbon cutting.

The addition of Wolfspeed emphasizes the need for educated workers. Graduates of SUNY Poly, located on the same campus, can help meet that need.

But its future in Oneida County is questionable.

The county executive is fighting for it to stay, and said he spoke with Gov. Kathy Hochul about it on Monday.

"Continue to press our case," Picente said. "We still believe that the engineering aspect is important here. She is committed to keeping that. It's now a matter of how we do that, and what else we do going forward."

Hochul said the conversations about SUNY Poly are "ongoing." She said nothing is definitive.

"I believe this facility right here should be the place that we're creating the jobs and doing the training for a whole new industry that's just emerging," Hochul said. "This is just the first building here on this Marcy campus that we've been talking about for years. So I believe that there's opportunities here to create different synergies."