GlobalFoundries Chip Plant in Saratoga County, New York

GlobalFoundries is building a new $4.2 billion computer chip plant about 15 miles from my house. It will be the most modern chip plant in the world when it is completed in 2012. It will be built in the Luther Forest Technology Campus (LFTC) located on 1,414 acres in Malta and Stillwater New York. It will be just a mile or two from Saratoga Lake and a few more miles from the city of Saratoga Springs.

GlobalFoundries, based in Sunnyvale, California, is a new company created by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) of Abu Dhabi. AMD creates and designs computer chips for personal computers and servers. While Intel is AMD’s largest competitor, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation is GlobalFoundries biggest competitor. GlobalFoundries has an existing chip plant in Dresden, Germany. If you click on the link, it will show you a picture of the chip plant in Dresden. The new chip plant will look similar to the one in Germany.

ATIC is a company created by the government of Abu Dhabi. ATIC will own 56.6% and AMD will own 44.4% of the new company.

Luther Forest is just off exit 12 of the Adirondack Northway (I-87). The part of I-87 that runs from Albany, New York to the Canadian border near Montreal is known as the Adirondack Northway. I drove around Luther Forest the other day and I was surprised to see how many private homes were in the area and how close it was to Saratoga Lake. I am not complaining though. This area can use some good, high paying technical jobs. GlobalFoundries says that it will create 1,465 jobs at the chip plant when it is fully operational and that over 5000 other jobs will be created by outside vendors to service and support the chip plant. It should help the economy of this area for years to come.

A chip plant is also known as a Fab, short for fabrication plant. The new plant in Malta, NY will be known as Fab 2. The Dresden, Germany plant is Fab 1.

Hector Ruiz, the new chairman of GlobalFoundries said that the new chip plant is “by far the most significant high-tech investment made in this country in decades.”

I plan to write more about the building of the chip plant and its impact on the area in future posts.

Do you have a specific question about the chip plant that wasn’t answered here? Leave a comment and I will see if I can find the answer. I appreciate your comments.