June 01, 2010 GlobalFoundries moving ahead with expansion of Malta facility Post Star - By: Drew Kerr
MALTA - Officials at GlobalFoundries say they are planning to move ahead with an expansion of the factory being built at the Luther Forest Technology Campus -- and that more state taxpayer money will be used in the effort.
Company officials first floated the idea of expanding their under-construction facility in late March, and have already received approval from Malta's planning board to proceed with the work.
The expansion of the Malta facility, called Fab 8, will begin later this month "pending final approval of an investment agreement" with New York leaders, company officials said late Monday after announcing the plans at a global semiconductor conference in Taiwan.
GlobalFoundries officials and state leaders have been privately discussing an additional incentive package that would leverage taxpayer money to help in the construction effort. The company has already been offered more than $1.2 billion in state money to build in Saratoga County.
Travis Bullard, a GlobalFoundries spokesman, said Tuesday that a "memorandum of understanding" is now in place that would provide the company with $15.8 million in state funds for the construction project. It is expected to be finalized within the next few days, he said.
The company will also get tax benefits from the state's Empire Zone program for moving ahead with the $75 million effort.
How many jobs will ultimately be created by the addition remains unclear, however.
Bullard said the company can not estimate how many jobs could be created with the extra 90,000 square feet of clean room space -- the ultra-pure environment in which computer chips are made -- because officials have not decided how to use it.
The company plans to build only the clean room "shell" now, and to decide later what technology to put into the space, if any.
What tools and equipment are ultimately installed in the space will dictate how many new employees will be needed. But Bullard said the expansion has the potential to create "several hundred" new jobs in addition to the 1,400 that are already expected at the site.
The company is scheduled to begin producing chips in 2012.
How many extra construction jobs or work hours will be needed for the effort was also unclear Tuesday, Bullard said.
The expansion is being undertaken to help the company meet growing global demand, and is being mirrored by similar investments in Dresden and Abu Dhabi, where GlobalFoundries also has operations.
"The good news is that we've got more and more customers and that those customers are needing additional manufacturing capacity from us," Bullard said.
