U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand , along with local U.S. Reps. Paul Tonko and Elise Stefanik and Syracuse-area Congressman John Katko , signed an April 12 letter to Biden asking him to prioritize funding the CHIPS Act, which passed under the Trump administration's most recent defense bill without a funding mechanism.
Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure bill would provide tens of billions of dollars more in funding than originally envisioned under the CHIPS Act.
The money could mean potentially billions of dollars in funding for chip companies like GlobalFoundries, which has a $15 billion chip factory in Saratoga County, to expand in New York state.
" The United States cannot wait to provide these resources over the years ahead," the letter reads. "The halted production lines for consumer technology, auto manufacturers, truckers, and other critical industries due to a semiconductor shortage further highlights the pressing need to act quickly and fund the enacted bipartisan provisions."
Tonko represents the district where GlobalFoundries has its Fab 8 chip "fab" in the town of Malta and where GlobalFoundries says it may build a second fab if it were to be awarded CHIPS Act funding.
But the Luther Forest Technology Campus where Fab 8 is located is also a potential site for another chip fab being contemplated by Intel, the world's largest chip maker.
And Samsung of South Korea is also looking at a potential upstate New York site as well.
Katko's district is home to one of the potential sites that either Samsung or Intel could consider in what's called the White Pine Commerce Park in the town of Clay outside of Syracuse.
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