Dive Brief:
- Tech company Micron pushed back construction at its $100 billion Clay, New York, semiconductor megafab plant by two to three years, according to the project’s final environmental impact report.
- The updated timeline now marks the opening of the first facility to come in 2030, instead of 2028, and adjusts milestones for subsequent fabs in phases through 2041, according to the report.
- “Based on construction timelines experience across the semiconductor industry for greenfield fabs in the United States, Micron has updated our projected operational milestones,” the company said in a statement to NewsChannel 9 WSYR Syracuse. “We are well-positioned to proceed with confidence.”
Dive Insight:
The news is a significant development for one of the largest active semiconductor construction efforts in the U.S.
The tech company awarded Rhode Island-based builder Gilbane a preconstruction contract in August to prepare the ground for the $100 billion semiconductor fabrication complex. The work marked the first phase of development at the White Pine Commerce Park site in Clay.
Neither Micron nor Gilbane responded to questions regarding the delay. Site prep work is still slated to commence this year, according to the document.
But Micron now expects the first Clay fab to come online in the third quarter of 2030, with buildout of all four facilities stretching into 2041, according to the final environmental impact report.
Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon attributed the delay to longer construction cycles and labor shortages, according to tech news outlet Tom’s Hardware.
Construction of the first fab, previously slated to begin before the end of the year, will now start in the second quarter of 2026, according to a table in the document detailing the revised schedule.
Construction of fab 2 will now begin in the fourth quarter of 2030 and end in the fourth quarter of 2033. Micron originally expected Fab 2 construction to start 2028 and end in 2030, according to the report.
Those delays will affect the initiation of Fab 3 and Fab 4 as well. Construction on the Fab 3 project will start in the third quarter of 2035, about two years later than expected, while Fab 4 construction activity will be delayed by one calendar quarter, according to the company.
Despite the pullback in New York, Micron is accelerating construction on its plant in Boise, Idaho.
The tech company redirected about $1.2 billion in federal support from New York to its ID2 fab in Boise, Idaho, according to Tom’s Hardware.
The Department of Commerce announced in December 2024 final direct funding awards of up to $6.165 billion under the CHIPS Incentives Program to support Micron’s megaprojects, according to the final environmental impact report.
