ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Upstate New York leading the way in a plan to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to the United States.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., spoke to News10NBC about what federal money from the CHIPS and Science Act means for this area.

Semiconductors are a key component in electronic chips that power everything from phones to planes. The majority of semiconductors are currently manufactured internationally, but this bill earmarked federal funding to help change that.

Out of 400 regions that applied for this funding, only 12 got it. The Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse region, dubbed the “Semiconductor Superhighway,” received $40 million plus $8 million in match money from the state. This will be used to continue growing the area’s tech industry, bringing in business, research, and jobs.

“Once you get something like that going, the payback process begins to build — it begins to snowball; more companies move here or are founded here because of that investment,” said Tom Battley, executive director of NY Photonics.

Many businesses are already doing this in the area; they just don’t have name recognition of the likes of Kodak.

Each upstate city is meant to focus on one key component in growing the industry. Rochester’s is workforce development, with a first-in-the-nation precision manufacturing program available at Monroe Community College.

“Rochester built America, but we lost a lot of that manufacturing — everyone remembers the devastation as Kodak announced layoffs, as Xerox shrunk and shrunk. With this semiconductor superhighway, with this tech hub. it’s reversing,” Schumer said.

There’s no specific timeframe for when we’ll see this money rolled out. Some of it will be going to MCC right away, while some will go to businesses committing to the area, whether that’s on the research side, manufacturing side, or as a consumer of semiconductors.

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