Corning invests $139M to expand work in Fairport to make semiconductors

FAIRPORT, N.Y. (WHEC) – In the past year, have you tried to buy a car or phone or microwave and it was delayed? Chances are it’s because there weren’t enough semiconductors. Semiconductors are the little computer chips the size of a stamp that has a huge role in providing the brains for everything from your smartwatch to your car.

News10NBC was at the Corning facility in Fairport where the work and jobs are expanding so you can get the car or phone that you bought.

Berkeley Brean: "So what you have in your hand is what you make here?"
John Bayne, Sr. VP, Gm Mobile Consumer Electronics, Corning: "Yes."
Brean: "What is that?"
Bayne: "These are precision glass elements we make to support the semiconductor industry."

Bayne is the vice president of mobile consumer electronics at Corning. We were inside the Corning center near the canal in Fairport. Bayne was holding a laser optic to build semiconductors and a hi-tech magnifying glass to inspect the work.

Brean: "Can you help me understand how this work affects people watching tonight?"
John Bayne: "Sure – so semiconductor chips are around us everywhere. They’re in cars, refrigerators, microwaves, phones laptops. I mean the world runs on semi-conductor chips today."

He said Corning makes the equipment that makes the semiconductors.

Corning invited all the major politicians to say it’s investing $139 million into the Fairport and Gates plants and adding up to 270 jobs.

"This will help Corning bolster the nation’s semiconductor supply chain," Corning CEO Wendell Weeks said.

"And, if the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that we need to make more of these products, these unique and special products, here at home," Sen. Chuck Schumer said.

Brean: "This work is going to do what? Get their car to them faster? Get a new cell phone?"
Bayne: "So by us doing our job and providing these precision optics we should help enable more semi-conductors to be made and more advanced semiconductors to be made. So people can get their cars, consumer electronic devices and get better devices over time."