WASHINGTON − The upstate New York “tech hub” between Buffalo and Syracuse will receive $40 million in federal funding in an attempt to make the region home to a reborn American microchip industry. U.S.
Sen. Chuck Schumer speaks during the announcement of the tech hub designation for the Buffalo-Rochester-Syracuse region in a ceremony at Buffalo Manufacturing Works in Buffalo on Oct. 23.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who authored the legislation creating the federal tech hubs and who pushed hard for the upstate bid to receive funding, was set to announce the funding Tuesday in visits to Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse. In an interview prior to the official announcement, Schumer said he was ecstatic that out of about 400 original tech hub bids, the upstate bid will be one of only 12 to receive significant federal funding. “This isn’t just a national spotlight on upstate New York,” said Schumer, a New York Democrat.
“This is the federal government saying that the I-90 corridor is America’s semiconductor superhighway.” The funding follows an announcement last October that the upstate bid would be one of 31 tech hubs authorized under the CHIPS and Science Act, Schumer’s landmark 2022 law that aims to “reshore” the semiconductor industry. But not all 31 of those tech hubs will be getting federal money to make investments aimed at bolstering the tech sector in those communities.
The upstate bid won money, Schumer said, because it stood out against the.
