President Joe Biden on Thursday traveled to Poughkeepsie, New York, to tout IBM’s $20 billion investment in the Hudson Valley region over the next decade.
The investment, the White House said, will cover research, development and manufacturing of semiconductors, quantum computing, artificial intelligence across the Hudson Valley, and will create “good-paying” domestic manufacturing jobs.
Biden is expected to tour IBM’s Poughkeepsie facility — flanked by Democratic Reps. Sean Patrick Maloney, Paul Tonko, and Pat Ryan, all House incumbents in competitive races in the region — before delivering remarks about what the White House calls a nationwide “manufacturing boom” spurred by his economic plan, which includes a bipartisan $280 billion semiconductor and scientific research bill passed earlier this summer.
“We are building a modern economy in the Hudson Valley with jobs that you can raise a family on.,” Maloney, who chairs the House Democrats’ re-election arm, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. “I’m thrilled to host [President Biden] in Poughkeepsie this week to celebrate the major wins and good-paying jobs we are delivering here in NY.”
IBM’s Poughkeepsie facility is the company’s only site that builds mainframe systems, and is home to its first Quantum Computation Center. The company aims to make the a global hub for the company’s quantum computing development, IBM said in a release.
“As we tackle large-scale technological challenges in climate, energy, transportation and more, we must continue to invest in innovation and discovery — because advanced technologies are key to solving these problems and driving economic prosperity, including better jobs, for millions of Americans,” IBM chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna said.
The IBM announcement is the latest in a series of private sector investments since the president signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law, a bill aimed at bolstering competitiveness with China that contains more than $52 billion in chip manufacturing and research. The bill, a major priority of the Biden administration and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., won significant bipartisan support in Congress.
Thursday’s event follows Tuesday’s announcement that Micron will invest up to $100 billion over the next 20 years to build a chip manufacturing facility in Clay, a suburb of Syracuse, New York. The investment could create more than 9,000 factory jobs.
Biden, in a statement, called the Micron announcement “another win for America,” crediting his economic plan, which includes the CHIPS and Science Act. Micron CEO Sanjay Mehotra, speaking at an event earlier this week, agreed.
“There is no doubt that without the CHIPS Act, we would not be here today,” Mehotra said Tuesday, adding: “The combined efforts at the federal, state, and local level paved the way for Micron to realize the largest private investment ever made in New York state history.”
Micron also recently announced a major factory project in Idaho, another in a string of recent domestic investments from technology companies. Chip giant Intel recently broke ground last month on two facilities near Columbus, Ohio, a $20 billion investment and Samsung announced a $17 billion plant in Texas late last year, in addition to invetments from other companies.
Later Thursday, Biden will travel to New Jersey for a Democratic National Committee fundraiser at the home of Gov. Phil Murphy, who chairs the Democratic Governors Association. He will later head to a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraiser in Manhattan hosted by James Murdoch, the son of News Corp executive chairman Rupert Murdoch.
