ALBANY, New York (AP) - A global computer microchip consortium will move its headquarters from Texas to its research center in upstate New York as part of a $600 million expansion, state officials and the company said Wednesday.
Sematech, a consortium of leading nanoelectronics manufacturers, said it will invest $300 million in the move from Austin to Albany and use another $300 million provided by the state. The deal will increase the work force in Albany by 450 jobs over three years and provide $25 million for research at five colleges and universities.
''New York is positioning itself as a leader in the innovation economy by providing both the facilities for state-of-the-art research and education of the tech savvy work force, and the assistance to translate nanoelectronics innovations into commercial products,'' Gov. Eliot Spitzer said.
Sematech has had a research facility at the state University at Albany since a 2002 deal involving state incentives approved by the Legislature and then-Gov. George Pataki.
Advanced Micro Devices, which has tentative plans for a chip manufacturing plant in Saratoga County near Albany, is a partner in Sematech along with Hewlett Packard, IBM, Intel, Texas Instruments, Panasonic, Samsung, NEC, Micron Technologies and six other chip makers.
''We believe that the establishment of our International Sematech headquarters and operations in New York significantly strengthens our competitiveness and ability to provide our member companies with production-worthy technological innovations that meet the requirements of their technical and business roadmaps,'' said Sematech CEO and President Michael R. Polcari.
Sematech is a leader in the development and sales of nanolithography technology, a photographic process that imprints patterns used to make computer chips.
More than 1,600 scientists, researchers and other staff work at Sematech's Albany facility, a $3.5 billion, 450,000-square foot complex.
Sematech was created in 1987 by 14 United States-based semiconductor manufacturers and began operations in 1988 in Austin to boost the domestic industry in a field dominated by Japan, according to the company's Web site. It later expanded to include companies based outside the U.S. and has been a key to Austin's growth as a high-tech research center.
