The White House and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., will announce on Monday a proposed $1.5 billion grant to a semiconductor manufacturer for facilities in New York and Vermont.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Schumer said that the projects the grant will help fund are expected to create more than 10,000 jobs.

What You Need To Know

  • The White House and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., will announce on Monday a proposed $1.5 billion grant to a semiconductor manufacturer for facilities in New York and Vermont

  • Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Schumer said on a Sunday press call that the projects the grant will help fund are expected to create over 10,000 jobs

  • The money is earmarked for a 10-year, $12 billion investment from both public and private sources into Malta, New York-based GlobalFoundries, one of the largest computer chip producers on the planet

  • The grant is funded by the $52 billion CHIPS and Science Act, signed into law in 2022 to supercharge the domestic semiconductor industry after pandemic shortages and concerns with acquiring the technology from foreign sources

“Decades from now, workers who are at the [chip factory] will have grandchildren employed in this plant. When your kid gets a job here, it's not like you say, ‘oh, it might be gone in two, three years, with technology changing so quickly,’” Schumer said on a call Sunday previewing the announcement. “These are permanent, long term jobs.”

“It's a once-in-a-generation investment,” he added.

The money is earmarked for a 10-year, $12 billion investment from both public and private sources into GlobalFoundries, one of the largest computer chip producers on the planet. The company, which holds favored status with the Pentagon and partners with companies like Lockheed Martin and GM, is headquartered in Malta, New York, a small town north of Albany.

"The chips made by GlobalFoundries are critical for the development and manufacturing of vehicles and smartphones, and are used for satellite and space communications that are essential to our national defense and national security," Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement about the announcement, later adding: "Additionally, the domestic production of these chips will provide more supply chain stability to the auto and aerospace industries across the United States that currently rely on the shipment of these chips from overseas."

"And of course, these types of investments can have a multiplier effect in communities – driving small business growth, strengthening workforce pipelines, and helping more people access good jobs without having to leave their hometowns," Harris noted.

“This is the largest CHIPS award thus far -- luminary word: thus far -- from the program I created. It's the very first for New York State. I'm also proud that it's the biggest announcement yet that has happened in New York State,” Schumer said. “And frankly, as I've said before, I wrote my CHIPS and science law with upstate New York as my Northstar.”

Schumer is projecting 9,000 union construction jobs created over the next 10 years, alongside 1,500 permanent manufacturing jobs. A senior administration official said most of the jobs would be in New York.

Raimando said GlobalFoundries is planning a new plant in Malta to “produce high value chips that are currently not made anywhere in the United States.” The money will also go towards revamping another Malta facility and one in Burlington, Vermont. The Burlington facility will pivot towards becoming the first U.S. producer of the “next generation” chip that’s used in electric vehicles, power grid infrastructure and 5G and 6G smartphones, according to the Biden administration.

The grant is funded by the $52 billion CHIPS and Science Act, signed into law in 2022 to supercharge the domestic semiconductor industry after pandemic shortages and concerns with acquiring the technology from foreign sources. With an evenly divided Senate, Schumer shepherded the bill to pass 64-33.

“The pandemic showed us that we can't rely on having supply chains overseas,” Schumer, who championed the bill, said.

“This is important for the [New York] Capital Region, of course, in terms of jobs and economics and growth, and being a center helping New York be a center of the chip [fabrication] industry, but it's vital for the rest of America,” he continued. “You can live in Wyoming, and you still need these chips for your car, for your phone. Our defense industry needs these chips.”

A senior administration official said on Sunday another $1.6 billion in potential loans will be made available to GlobalFoundries, which is required to invest in child care and apprenticeship programs to receive the grant funding. The company’s CEO, Thomas Caulfield, said in a statement that the federal investment was “central to the next chapter” of GlobalFoundries. Administration officials said that GlobalFoundries will sell continue chips to the government as well as companies domestically and internationally. They also operate in Europe and have a facility in Singapore.

Raimondo said more investments in other companies’ projects will be announced “in the coming weeks and months.”

In 2022, President Joe Biden went to Syracuse, New York, to unveil a $100 billion investment by Micron Technology in domestic chip production there. Also in 2022, Poughkeepsie, New York-based IBM invested $20 billion themselves in the Hudson Valley.