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Greenfield site selected by AMD for third 300mm fab |
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Jun 26, 2006 at 03:13 PM |
 Advanced Micro Devices signed an agreement with New York State agencies to build a new 300mm fab on a greenfield site at the Luther Forrest Technology Park in Saratoga County, near Albany in upstate New York.
The new facility will cost $3.2 billion US dollars in an initial phase that will see groundbreaking in June 2007 with cleanroom completion by the end of 2008. Over US$5 billion could be spent at the greenfield site by AMD in the next 3 to 5 years, according to Hector Ruiz, AMD CEO.
Under a range of State and regional aid programs, AMD could be inline for direct financial assistance that could reach $1.2 billion. George Pataki, Governor of NY State highlighted at a press conference Friday to announce the new fab that this was one of the biggest single investments ever made in the State. It would also be the largest direct investments by a Regional Government to attract a company to a region.
The AMD news comes only a month after the chip manufacturer announced it would retool an existing 200mm facility, Fab 30 in Dresden, Germany to 300mm wafer production as well as extend capacity at its first 300mm facility, Fab 36 also in Dresden Germany. The Luther Forrest facility will be AMD's first 300mm facility in the U.SA.
Governor Pataki noted in his webcast address that AMD had looked at several other sites both in the US and Asia as well as Dresden, Germany before agreeing to site a 300mm fab in NY State. Pataki also noted that the deal had only been finalised 24 hours before the press conference held locally in Albany tech center.
AMD expects to directly employ 1200 people at the new fab with up to 5,000 jobs created indirectly.
However, no specific details were given as to when the facility would tool install or start volume production. It is expected that due to the ramp of Fab 36 and Fab 38 taking until the end of 2009, the new fab is unlikely to come on stream before then, unless market demand dictated.
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