Sematech, IBM's New Fab
Have State Looking Chipper

IBM's $2.5 billion East Fishkill 300-mm semiconductor fab opened in July and employs 1,000.

Semiconductor R&D and manufacturing are definitely taking eastern New York's economy upward, according to recent reports by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
        The Hudson Valley is poised to take a major leadership role in the semiconductor industry, largely due to the recently opened $2.5-billion IBM fab facility in East Fishkill, says Marc M. Goloven, J.P. Morgan's senior regional economist, who compiled the reports. (The IBM project was among the Top Deals of 2001, detailed in the May 2001 issue of Site Selection.) Goloven says when the chip-making activity of the IBM plant combines with the R&D which will be conducted at Sematech North in Albany, the results have the potential to transform the regional economy. He concludes that the two projects create "a perfect match of commercial promise and academic excellence" and will create a stronger high-technology economy in Tech Valley – a 17-county region stretching from Clinton County in the north to Dutchess County in the south.
        International Sematech, a consortium of the world's 12 major computer chip manufacturers, announced last summer that it will site its next-generation 300-millimeter computer chip research and development center, to be called International Sematech North, at the Center of Excellence in Nanoelectronics at the University of Albany.
        IBM's $2.5-billion 300-mm. semiconductor facility opened in East Fishkill in July. The largest private-sector investment in New York state history, the new fab will employ 1,000. It is designed to satisfy growing demand for IBM's chip technologies through high-end "foundry" manufacturing services.