Officially released into the wild only a few months ago, AMD semiconductor manufacturing company, GLOBALFOUNDRIES is adding its very own second official foundry on United States soil.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES today announced it has issued the formal commitment letter to the State of New York for the construction of the Fab 2 project at the Luther Forest Technology Campus (LFTC). The letter officially initiates the construction phase of the Fab 2 project and triggers the State of New York to begin the process of issuing bonds for the payment of reimbursements and incentives to the company for the development of the estimated $4.2 billion semiconductor wafer fabrication facility, or “fab.”

“AMD decided in 2006 to bring a state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing facility to upstate New York because we knew that the region is an ideal location to produce the most advanced semiconductor products,” said Dirk Meyer, president and CEO, AMD. “Today’s formal commitment by our joint venture GLOBALFOUNDRIES fulfills AMD’s vision. We look forward to the creation of thousands of new jobs in the United States as a result of the culmination of a vision that we have shared with the people of New York.”

In preparation for officially breaking ground in July, GLOBALFOUNDRIES also announced today it has:

• Completed the Development Agreement with the Town of Malta and the Town of Stillwater. Through the Development Agreement the company will contribute $5 million, including $1 million towards the creation of a 32-acre public recreation field complex. The remaining $4 million will be used to establish two independent foundations designed to provide dedicated funding for future community enrichment programs in each town.
• Authorized M+W Zander to award the site development bid. The site development work, also referred to as “clearing and grubbing,” will begin on Monday, June 15 and will prepare the site for full-scale construction, including the official groundbreaking ceremony planned for July.
• Scheduled the closing of the transaction to purchase 223 acres of land from LFTC for Wednesday, June 10.

“New York is in position to lead the nation in the New Economy. This project represents exactly the type of innovation and cutting-edge technology that will give our state a critical advantage moving forward. It is also the largest public-private sector industrial investment in New York State history, with thousands of new jobs and billions of dollars in capital expenditures, which will have an incredible impact,” said Governor David Paterson. “I want to thank Hector Ruiz and his team at GLOBALFOUNDRIES for their commitment to this important project and their commitment to New Yorkers.”

The construction project is expected to take approximately two years to complete and an additional 12 to 18 months to ramp to full operating mode, with volume production anticipated in roughly 2012. The Fab 2 project is expected to create approximately 1,400 new direct semiconductor manufacturing jobs at full scale production with an estimated annual payroll of more than $88 million. In addition, the project is expected to create approximately 5,000 new indirect jobs in the region with a sustained estimated total annual payroll of $290 million per year for all jobs.

The total capital budget for this project is estimated at approximately $4.2 billion, including local construction expenditures of approximately $800 million. Construction is expected to create approximately 1,600 new construction jobs, plus an additional 2,700 local construction-related jobs.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES is a semiconductor manufacturing company by a joint venture between AMD and the Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) on March 2, 2009.

For more information on the project and AMD’s involvement please see: http://globalfoundries.com/about_us/locations/saratoga_county/timeline_fab_2.

Source: AMD/GlobalFoundries