SCHUMER: ALBANY NANOTECH HAS STRUCK FINAL AGREEMENT FOR NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR TECHNOLOGY CENTER, LOCKING IN $825 MILLION IN FED FUNDING TO MAKE CAPITAL REGION A GLOBAL EPICENTER OF CHIP RESEARCH
Final Agreement Will Secure Funding For Albany NanoTech As First NSTC Facility From Schumer’s Bipartisan CHIPS & Science Law, Ensuring This Hub Will Lead The Next Frontier Of Chip Research For The Country As New Administration Takes Over
Schumer Created NSTC Program — With Albany As His North Star — And Worked Relentlessly To Secure Prestigious Investment, Bringing Good-Paying Jobs, New Companies, And Innovation With The Most Advanced Machinery In World To Upstate NY
Schumer: Today We Secure Albany NanoTech’s Future As The Home Of America’s Semiconductor Research
Following years of advocacy, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer today announced NY CREATES, Natcast, and the U.S. Department of Commerce have reached the final agreement to make Albany NanoTech’s the first flagship facility of the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC), bringing a historic $825 million in federal R&D investment from Schumer’s bipartisan CHIPS & Science Law.
“With the final agreement in place, Albany NanoTech and Upstate NY has secured its future as the epicenter for America’s semiconductor research. This final contract locks in the massive $825 million in federal investment to make Albany NanoTech the flagship hub of the National Semiconductor Technology Center,” said Senator Schumer. “Historic breakthroughs researchers today cannot even fathom are going to happen in Albany thanks to this federal investment. America’s national security, our technological future, and our economy all rely on our country being able to produce the most cutting-edge chips, and this final agreement ensures that the epicenter of those federal research efforts will be right here in Upstate NY. Making Albany NanoTech an NSTC headquarters is critical to the success of Upstate NY’s transformational chips investments like Micron’s $100 billion investment in Central NY and GlobalFoundries’ $13 billion expansion in the Capital Region. It will help further attract new companies to the region, supercharging the chip ecosystem in Upstate NY and in the nation. I included the necessary funds to make the NSTC possible in my bipartisan CHIPS & Science Law with Albany NanoTech as my north star, and today that vision takes a monumental step forward to becoming a reality.”
“The Empire State is becoming a national leader in advanced manufacturing because of the investments New York has made in this industry and the extraordinary help of President Biden. New York State has the talent, infrastructure and innovation to continue on this trajectory and the best is yet to come. My 2025 State of the State includes new initiatives to grow this critical industry, and we’ll continue doing everything in our power to create jobs and boost economic growth,” said Governor Kathy Hochul.
The NSTC is a critical part of Schumer’s mission of re-establishing America’s leadership in the semiconductor industry and will bring together industry leaders, researchers from the nation’s top universities, innovators, workers, and entrepreneurs to help give them access to the most advanced chip making machinery in the world and drive the next frontier of chip innovation and manufacturing.
The Department of Commerce and Natcast, the operator of the NSTC, will invest an initial $825 million to further build out equipment at Albany NanoTech, to conduct cutting-edge extreme ultraviolet (EUV) research and development (R&D), and to establish an NSTC presence with offices and support services in Albany. Today’s final agreement locks in making Albany NanoTech a CHIPS for America R&D flagship facility, serving as the country’s NSTC EUV Accelerator, the headquarters for national EUV research. EUV technology is essential to the semiconductor industry and some of the most advanced machinery in the world, in which light is used to print patterns and make chips on wafers. EUV lithography is what has allowed the breakthroughs to make this technology nanoscopic and allows for the chips that power everything from smartphones, computers, and vehicles to artificial intelligence. Albany NanoTech will soon be one of only two public facilities in the world with the most advanced EUV technology, a High NA Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography tool, and will be the only publicly-owned High NA EUV Center in North America.
Schumer explained that the state-of-the-art new EUV facility at Albany NanoTech and today’s agreement on federal investment will help the United States establish dominance in advanced semiconductor research and development. The NSTC EUV Accelerator will help address gaps in American knowledge about semiconductors and provide information to stakeholders including universities, small businesses and entrepreneurs, large manufacturers, workers, and government agencies by providing NSTC members with access to EUV technology to facilitate research, commercialization, and workforce training.
The NSTC EUV Accelerator at Albany NanoTech will be a place for leaders in the semiconductor industry to conduct research and collaborate, including bringing industry leaders like Micron, IBM, GlobalFoundries, Applied Materials, Tokyo Electron, ASML, and more to the table to partner on next-generation R&D. Being designated the NSTC EUV Accelerator will also open up opportunities for Albany NanoTech and Upstate NY to attract further federal investment and help attract more companies from around the world to Albany to conduct research, all with the potential of creating more good-paying jobs and making Upstate NY a global leader in semiconductors. The U.S. Department of Commerce and Natcast intend for the NSTC EUV Accelerator at Albany NanoTech to be operational this year.
Schumer worked for years to highlight Albany NanoTech and the Capital Region’s ability to lead the country’s semiconductor research and development efforts, announcing the selection of Albany NanoTech as America’s first National Semiconductor Technology Center with up to $825 million in federal CHIPS funding last year. In addition to directly highlighting Albany NanoTech to President Biden, Schumer has brought top government officials to the Capital Region to promote Albany NanoTech as a major hub for the NSTC. In July 2021 prior to the passage of his bipartisan CHIPS & Science Law, Schumer brought Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to Albany and has brought many other top officials to visit the facility over the years. Schumer also highlighted Albany NanoTech when pitching Micron to locate their massive $100+ billion megafab project in Upstate NY, which Micron said was a critical factor in their selection of Central NY for their major investment to bring advanced memory chip manufacturing to the U.S.
Schumer also secured a commitment for South Korea to partner with Albany Nanotech on research, pushed for increased collaboration on semiconductor R&D between Japan and the United States, pitched Albany NanoTech to major Japanese chip suppliers for further investment, and met with the leadership of Belgium’s imec on multiple occasions to discuss ways Albany NanoTech and imec can collaborate as the two global leading semiconductor public-private research institutions, including imec establishing a presence at Albany NanoTech. Schumer said these international partnerships underscore the ability of Albany NanoTech’s unique and world-renowned assets to help forge deeper ties with allies and partners in building more resilient chip supply chains and encouraging R&D collaboration, a key national security priority of the CHIPS programs, including the NSTC.
In 2023, Schumer and Governor Hochul announced a new $10 billion public-private investment at Albany NanoTech which will help install a High NA EUV lithography machine, the most advanced semiconductor equipment ever made, designed, and manufactured by ASML. Schumer said this helps uniquely prepare Albany NanoTech to lead the NSTC as one of only two public research institutions in the world home to the new advanced EUV tool. In September 2023, Schumer announced NY CREATES, which leads Albany NanoTech, as one of the first to tap CHIPS funding with a $40 million award through the CHIPS DoD Microelectronics Commons Program to establish a new consortium, known as the Northeast Regional Defense Technology Hub. In September 2024, the consortium received an additional $30 million. Schumer also helped secure $4.7 million from the National Science Foundation for NY CREATES to provide workforce training associated with Albany NanoTech. These funds, made possible by a program boosted in Schumer’s bipartisan CHIPS & Science Law, will support the establishment of the Education Alliance for Semiconductor Experiential Learning (EASEL) program to help address the growing national demand for a skilled workforce in the semiconductor industry.
The NSTC EUV Accelerator at Albany NanoTech is one of three planned major NSTC facilities and the first to have the agreement finalized. The U.S. Department of Commerce announced that California’s Silicon Valley will host NSTC’s Administrative and Design Facility and Phoenix, Arizona will host the Prototyping and Advanced Packaging Piloting Facility. Together, these three major hubs will lead the NSTC’s core functions and help fulfill the CHIPS & Science Law’s vision of developing more American-made technology and boosting America as a global semiconductor leader. The new NSTC EUV Accelerator at Albany NanoTech will also open the doors to opportunities for millions of dollars in additional future investment and partnership with the federal government, as well as help bring in additional industry partners to leverage the state-of-the-art facilities to develop and manufacture advanced chips.
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