FOLLOWING PERSONAL CALLS TO SAMSUNG TOP BRASS, SCHUMER ANNOUNCES SAMSUNG VISITED GENESSEE SITE LAST MONTH TO GET FIRST-HAND LOOK AT STAMP; HEEDING THE SENATOR’S CALLS, SAMSUNG VISITS AND CONFIRMS NY STILL IN RUNNING FOR NEW $17 BILLION SEMICONDUCTOR FAB

Schumer, In Two Calls To Samsung Top Brass, Encouraged Tour Of WNY STAMP Site; Schumer Pressed Visit To See First-Hand STAMP’s Advantages, That Make It Ideal For New Multi-Billion $ Fab

Senator Says His Senate-Passed First-Ever Federal Chip Fab Incentive Legislation Is Game-Changer To Landing Samsung In NY; Throws Support Behind Securing New Facility In Genesee & Establishing NY As Global Hub For Semiconductor Industry 

Schumer To Samsung: Seeing Is Believing – STAMP Is The Future For Samsung!

Following the bipartisan Senate passage of his U.S. Innovation and Competition Act that will invest $52 billion in the domestic semiconductor industry, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer reached out directly out to Samsung top brass for a second time to: 1) invite and welcome them to personally visit the WNY STAMP Campus, and 2) to reiterate his support for Samsung to ultimately select WNY STAMP as the site for its new $17 billion semiconductor fab. With COVID and scheduling restrictions limiting prior travel, on the call, Schumer welcomed and encouraged Samsung officials to visit the 1250 acre megasite STAMP campus which was designed specifically for a large scale semiconductor manufacturing plant, and see first-hand how it could be a perfect home for Samsung’s new U.S. chip fab. Schumer praised Samsung officials for acting on his invitation and visiting STAMP last month to gain an up close and personal view of how all the unique advantages and assets offered at WNY STAMP can best position Samsung’s planned new fab for success. Schumer expressed his strong support for the project coming to Western New York and emphasized that his efforts are backed by incentives in the now Senate-passed U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, which he is now working with the House to pass into law.

On May 21^st, Samsung announced it intends to invest $17 billion to create a new semiconductor chip manufacturing fab in the U.S. As Samsung evaluates sites now in contention for this new development, including the WNY STAMP site, Schumer explained on his call that STAMP’s many cost and infrastructure advantages would be an asset to Samsung to enable the company to maximize the full potential of its planned $17 billion new fab.

“I’m thrilled that Samsung officials agreed to my request and personally visited the WNY STAMP campus last month to get an up close and personal view of the site’s many advantages that can make WNY STAMP the perfect home for Samsung’s new job-creating $17 billion semiconductor chip fab. Samsung ’s plan to invest $17 billion to build a new U.S. semiconductor chip fab is welcome news and an exciting opportunity for the Western New York region. I made it clear on my second call to Samsung that I strongly support locating their state-of-the-art semiconductor chip fab at the shovel-ready STAMP site in Genesee County. It was precisely to bring companies like Samsung to Upstate New York that I fought tooth and nail in the Senate to secure bipartisan support for the U.S Innovation and Competition Act,” said Senator Schumer. “I’ve made it clear to Samsung that there’s no better place for my legislation to be put to work than at Western New York’s STAMP campus and there’s no better site that’s primed for a new fab than WNY STAMP. That’s because STAMP, with its low-cost and reliable utility grid, top-notch workforce spanning from Buffalo to Rochester and beyond, and proximity to semiconductor supply chains, is tailor-made to suit a large scale fab development.”

Schumer added, “I applaud Samsung for acting on my invitation and doubling down on its continued consideration of the WNY STAMP site for its transformative new semiconductor chip manufacturing fab. Now following their real-life hands-on visit to STAMP, I look forward to continuing to work with Samsung and local and state officials and offer my all-out support and advocacy in helping STAMP compete to win this multi-billion dollar plant, including working with the House to pass the historic federal semiconductor incentives into law to bring this major project to fruition.”  

Schumer has long championed the Genesee site and toured STAMP in August, and knows firsthand how ideal the campus would be as home for Samsung’s new chip fab. Schumer explained to Samsung that he, alongside the Genesee County Economic Development Center (GCECC), New York State, and Western New York officials, worked for a decade to help ensure that it was shovel-ready for a semiconductor facility.

Additionally, during his call the Senator pointed out many cost and infrastructure advantages offered by the STAMP campus location, including low utility costs, access to existing transportation networks, access to New York state’s existing chip fab supply chain ecosystem, and proximity to 62 colleges, universities, and community colleges within a 2-hour drive of the site including Cornell University, University at Buffalo, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Rochester, Genesee Community College.  Moreover, Schumer stressed that  with New York’s power grid, STAMP provides resilient and redundant utility capabilities that are key to operations like semiconductor manufacturing that cannot afford to lose power.  Not only does STAMP offer some of the lowest cost electricity in North America, it is also traversed by redundant electric transmission lines and served by large-scale, high-pressure gas lines providing robust utility capacity, redundancy, and reliability.

Last month, Schumer announced senate passage of the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, which combined his Endless Frontier Act, other bipartisan competitiveness bills, and includes $52 billion in emergency supplemental appropriations to implement the semiconductor-related manufacturing and R&D programs the senator authorized in last year’s National Defense Authorization Act and a program to support legacy chip production that is essential to the auto industry, the military, and other critical industries. Schumer is now working with the House to pass the historic federal semiconductor incentives into law as well as supporting the recently introduced FABS Act that will help develop and protect U.S. semiconductor supply chain capabilities through a new investment tax credit program. 

Details on the supplemental appropriations appear below:

• $49.5 billion allocated over 5 years for a CHIPS for America Fund. Funding must be used to implement the Commerce Department semiconductor incentive and R&D programs authorized by the FY21 NDAA (Sec. 9902 & 9906). Within the fund, the following appropriations are available:
• Incentive Program: $39 billion appropriated upfront and allocated over 5 years to implement the programs authorized in Sec. 9902. $2 billion is provided to solely focus on legacy chip production to advance the economic and national security interests of the United States.
  • $19 billion in FY22, including the $2 billion legacy chip production funding
  • $5 billion each year, FY23 through FY26
• Commerce R&D programs: $10.5 billion appropriated upfront and allocated over 5 years to implement programs authorized in Sec. 9906, including the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC), National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program, and other R&D programs authorized in Sec. 9906.
  • $5 billion in FY22:
    • $2.5 billion for advanced packaging
    • $2 billion for NSTC
    • $500 million for other related R&D programs

 For use across the advanced packaging, NSTC, and other related R&D programs, the following would be provided:

• $2 billion in FY23
• $1.3 billion in FY24
• $1.1 for FY25 and FY26 
• $2 billion for a CHIPS for America Defense Fund: Funding is appropriated up front and $400 million is allocated each year, over 5 years for the purposes of implementing programs authorized in Sec. 9903(b), providing support for R&D, testing and evaluation, workforce development, and other related activities, in coordination with the private sector, universities, and other Federal agencies to support the needs of the Department of Defense and the intelligence community.
• $500 million for a CHIPS for America International Technology Security and Innovation Fund: Funding is appropriated upfront and $100 million each year, allocated over 5 years to the Department of State, in coordination with the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Export-Import Bank, and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, for the purposes of coordinating with foreign government partners to support international information and communications technology security and semiconductor supply chain activities, including supporting the development and adoption of secure and trusted telecommunications technologies, semiconductors, and other emerging technologies.

Schumer, in addition to paving the way for future federal incentives for investment into domestic semiconductor manufacturing previously brought STAMP to the attention of the Department of Defense, urging the agency to work with the semiconductor industry to expand the domestic supply of chips and other microelectronics.

STAMP is specifically designed for development of large scale semiconductor manufacturing.  The 1250 acre Mega site can accommodate large advanced manufacturing operations with its expansive space for several plants.

Schumer has also previously lobbied the Board of Directors of the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) to put STAMP on their map and pitched SIA’s 18 semiconductor industry CEOs to look to expand their operations in Upstate New York at sites like STAMP in Genesee County.

In 2017 Schumer helped secure Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approval of Empire Pipeline Inc.’s revised and extended PILOT agreement with Genesee County, the proceeds of which were needed to finance new water infrastructure at STAMP. In 2016 Schumer began assisting STAMP secure necessary U.S. Fish and Wildlife right-of-way permits to construct new infrastructure hook-ups to STAMP. In 2012, Schumer successfully advocated on behalf of STAMP by calling on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide necessary wetlands permit assurances so that STAMP's developers could proceed with developing the site. 

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