Samsung Electronics reportedly is considering an investment of as much as $17 billion to build a chip-making factory in Arizona, Texas or New York and that site in New York is said to be in Genesee County.
That’s according to sources quoted by the Wall Street Journal, who referred to a “large industrial campus” in Genesee County.
While the WSJ story was not specific, that would seem to indicate the potential site might be the 1,250 Western New York Science, Technology and Advanced Manufacturing Park (WNY STAMP) location in the Town of Alabama, which Genesee County Economic Development Center (GCEDC) has been marketing for some years now.
The WSJ article says the proposed Samsung plant would employ up to 1,900 people and aims to be operational by October 2022. The Journal says an important factor as to whether Samsung moves ahead with the expansion will be the availability of U.S. federal government incentives to offset those offered by foreign countries as well as cheaper costs in other parts of the world.
Bloomberg and The Hill also have reported on the potential Samsung expansion in recent days. There was no immediate comment from Samsung when contacted Sunday by WXXI News.
A statement released by Steve Hyde, the president and CEO of Genesee County Economic Development Center, said development of the STAMP industrial park has steadily progressed through the years.
“Coupled with the many attributes of STAMP, including being strategically located (within) the Buffalo Niagara and Rochester Finger Lakes metropolitan regions, a well-educated and productive workforce, access to low-cost electricity due to the support of the New York Power Authority and many others have enabled STAMP to compete globally for large scale economic development projects in the semi-conductor, advanced manufacturing and clean energy sectors," Hyde said.
Hyde did not specifically comment on the possibility of a Samsung chip plant.
