IBM-Led Group Plans Nearly $3B in Tech Investment

IBM--along with six global partners that include Sony, Toshiba, Samsung, Infineon, AMD and Charter--will spend $1.9 billion on nanoelectronics manufacturing and development at Big Blue's existing 300-mm wafer chip manufacturing facility. IBM developed and completed its initial wafer chip plant in 2002 at a cost of $2.5 billion.

"New York State has just scored two major victories to seal its role as an international powerhouse in high-technology research and economic development," Pataki said. "The smart investments that we have made in New York's future as a high-tech leader are clearly paying off and producing major job-creating dividends for our economy."

An IBM spokesman says the expansion will increase the size of the wafer chip plant in East Fishkill by 380,000 sf. The shell of the expansion building will be completed sometime during the second half of this year. The facility, which will eventually total 525,000 sf, will be built out in stages over the next two to three years, he says. The expanded facilities in East Fishkill will combine certain IBM chip making breakthroughs on 300-mm wafers, with features more than 1,500 times thinner than a human hair, state officials note.

Work on the expansion project at East Fishkill has been going on since the spring 2004. However, IBM would not confirm reports that the project had begun until after the governor's speech.

The governor also reported that IBM and a group of the largest nanoelectronics equipment suppliers that includes TEL and Applied Materials intend to invest, pending completion of contract negotiations, $450 million to expand the research and development capabilities of the Albany Center of Excellence in Nanoelectronics, located at the State University at Albany.

The expansion of the research and development capabilities of the Albany Center of Excellence will create the most advanced 300-mm research facility at any university in the world, state officials contend. Pataki agreed to commit $150 million in state support for the two projects, which are expected to create 750 high technology jobs.