Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Hochul, Schumer, Mcmahon Announce: Micron is Coming to Onondaga County! Micron Will Invest an Unprecedented $100 Billion Over the Next 20-Plus Years to Transform Central New York Into a Global, Leading-Edge Semicond

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon, and Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra announced one of the largest economic development projects in U.S. history — a transformational public-private partnership with Micron Technology to build a cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing campus in Onondaga County, New York.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the event is available here.

PHOTOS of the event are available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks are available below:

Good morning and thank you, Majority Leader. Majority Leader is the difference. That is why Chuck Schumer was so successful in being able to work with President Biden and to achieve something that was perhaps unthinkable not long ago. So, to our Majority Leader, our own Senator, Chuck Schumer, I stand here with a heart full of gratitude for everything you have done and the way you have championed this and never, never gave up. So, thank you and thank you for being such an incredible partner.

It's great to back at Syracuse. I want to commend Kent Syverud, our Chancellor. I arrived here a few decades ago, an idealistic young student wanting to study something known as political science. And now to be able to return to this very space, to be able to make one of the most transformative announcements that I perhaps ever will as Governor of the State of New York, is something that is deeply humbling for me and something that's very exciting.

Ryan McMahon, I'll be introducing in a couple of minutes, our County Executive - thank you for helping spearhead this initiative. And Rob Simpson, the President of CenterState CEO. I also do want to acknowledge the incredible team at ESD. Hope Knight, who stepped into this very new in our administration when we saw an opportunity that we would just not let go. But Kevin Younis, what you did with our team, it was extraordinary. And I'm so proud that we have created the model of how we do something that was once thought impossible to all of you and their team. And to James Katz, who's the Deputy Secretary for Economic Development.

But also, this happened - we're going to talk about the Green CHIPS bill in a minute, but it had to get through the legislature. And I do want to thank Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Speaker Carl Heastie, and our partner, Al Stirpein the Assembly and Jeremy Cooney in the Senate for getting this through as well. But also, how do we not mention Sanjay? Sanjay, I'll talk about you in a second, but when we had a chance to just literally just hug each other tightly when we saw each other. We realized that something magical was happening. And I hope you feel that same sense of awe and wonder that we all feel here about the possibilities that seems so unlimited right now. And I will always be grateful that there's someone like you who came to this country with a dream, and now you're helping make New York dreams come true as well. So, thank you, Sanjay, the CEO of this great company.

Well, today started as an ordinary Tuesday for most Central New Yorkers, most New Yorkers - unsuspecting that a life-altering announcement awaited them at this very hour, something that would give hope of a better tomorrow, something that could turn naysayers into believers, and something so transformative in scale and possibility that the economic future of New York State is now beyond imagination. And now that moment has arrived. We are gathered here as a result of an exclusive, almost never happening, extraordinary, unprecedented collaboration between the private sector, businesses, labor, local elected leaders, our federal leaders, and ultimately the State to be able to close on a deal, which will be known as the investment of the century. News accounts, if you watch other states, have touted historic announcements in this field, advanced technology and semiconductor announcements. But they thought that was very big. I won't name a particular state that starts with an O.

I'm here to say that's great, but this is New York State. Everything we do is bigger, bolder, and ultimately better. And if you need proof, I'll just say as the Governor of this great State, I am overjoyed. I am so proud, and I am so honored that after a global search and a national search that Micron, this global leader in semiconductor manufacturing has committed over $100 billion over next 20 years. $100 billion. Just think of the scale of that. Five times larger than the other one that everybody thought was so great somewhere else. I'm a New Yorker, I have to do this. So, what does this mean? What does this mean? White Pines Commerce Park literally 20 minutes down the road from here in Clay will be the home to the next generation of chip manufacturing. And as we heard from the Senator, over 5,000 hard working men and women of labor, and I thank labor for getting this done with us. Greg Williams and others, who stepped up when I said, "There's something we need to have happened here." And you made it happen. But those building trades workers are going to continue to buy houses, invest in our communities, raise their kids here. There are children who aren't even born yet who will be working in this project. That is extraordinary.

And also, the over 50,000 indirect jobs over time. And this will be a community. This is as large as a town - will be here to announce, to be part of this history. I think about in January, I stood with Senator Schumer in Albany Nanotech, and I said, "Watch out. Watch out world. The semiconductor industry will now be New York's industry." And I declared that we'd also be the semiconductor capital of the entire world. And I know Senator Schumer had something nice and big to show up here, but I'm a little shorter, I go a little smaller, but what he showed was the foundation of what is right here. This tiny little chip. It doesn't look big, but it really has power, and this is so central to our existence, this tiny chip. That I just want all of you to do an experiment with me. Pull out your cell phone for a second. Pull out your cell phones. Everybody, pull out your cell phones, I know you all have one. Now take a look at your cell phone. Many of you love your cell phones. You can't imagine life without your cell phone, okay? Now put it away, and imagine a world where supply chain, global supply chains are disrupted. The ports are crowded. The materials are not coming from other places where they're manufactured. This critical part of it. Or think of a geopolitical situation where something manufactured in a country that now turns on us and has embargoes and trade practices to stop us from being able to receive this chip. That's called a world without these semiconductors if we don't make them here. That is the national security that we have to stand up against. That's why we must manufacture these right here in America, in what better place than in New York?

So, they will be made, because of Micron, they will be made right here in New York, protecting our national security, our economic security, and ultimately the consumer security because we cannot count on the foreign supply chains any longer. To keep them running, we must make them here, and as we said, "Yes, I wonder why was New York chosen?" I'm sure you'll hear from Sanjay. Why New York? Why New York? If I have a few philosophies on, a little thought on this, New York was born ready for this opportunity, a chance like this to just demonstrate what our state motto "Excelsior, Ever Upward" means.

What does that truly mean? Because we are heading upwards, and it's also because we have persevered through the toughest times. We started meeting when the pandemic was still on, was still raging. It was even before Omicron when we had these conversations. But they know that New Yorkers have that tough spirit. So, in the toughest times we always prevail. And I also know that other companies will see this as a message today of the confidence that a global leader like Micron has in a state like New York, and it'll also foster their desire to come here as well. That is the ripple effect of this announcement because they'll also want to be at the epicenter of what we're known as the fourth industrial revolution because it's all going on right here, and it's takes a lot of work.

You have to have the infrastructure, you have to have the shovel-ready sites, and very early on, literally my first week as Governor, I think my first official meeting went into my nice, fancy conference room. I was able to welcome leadership from the Micron team, and I knew the stakes were high. I had to make the best pitch I could because I knew where they were looking. A lot of people said that we didn't have a chance, a lot of naysayers out there. As an upstater and as an upstate grad, I had a chance to talk and talk about my knowledge of this theory like no other could. Talk about the affordable homes, the great public schools, the vibrant downtown city, easy commutes, access to the best vacation spots in the world: the Finger Lakes, the Adirondacks, the Thousand Islands.

I said, "This place is fun. This is where people are going to want to work and live." But also, we'd benefit from having nation-leading research centers, educational institutions like SU, and the many great, high-quality institutions that are all over upstate New York. And so, you'll have the talent you need. That was a big question. Will we have the workers we need? Where are they going to come from? Well, I also said, "This is what we attract, the best and the brightest. People want to be here." And we are known for our innovation and being risky and taking gutsy moves, as the Senator mentioned, like superhuman engineering feats, like the Erie Canal.

People said it couldn't be done at all. But also, we have that legacy of manufacturing. It's in our DNA. You think about the Carrier Corporation, Kodak down the road, companies like GE, Carrier, as I mentioned, Corning not far from here, and the incredible work ethic we have here. When people work at a company like my dad and grandpa worked at a steel plant, Grandpa stayed there is entire career. My uncle stayed there his entire career. That's what New Yorkers do. They work hard, and we talk about that. So for me, as the first upstate Governor in 100 years, this was a personal quest and failure was not an option. After months of dinners and phone calls and Zoom meetings and working so closely with the Senator to strategize on what needs to be done and how to work with Washington, and deepening our personal relationships, which are important to all of us, deepening our relationships, we knew we could make the impossible actually possible. And as I mentioned, one of the things we had to overcome was getting a solid project labor agreement in place. Greg Lancette, thank you. You are an important part of this.

Also, with the second thing that had to have happened, we did have to get the federal legislation through, and thank God we have someone with the influence and the desire to make this happen as the Majority Leader from New York. I do believe that that was critical in the success of that getting through. But also New York had to be competitive with every other state. And as the federal bill was making its way through, we saw our opportunity, the legislature was still in session. We started drafting our own with the support of the legislature. Just days after the federal law looked like it was going to be successful, I signed the nation-leading Green CHIPS bill, right here in New York. And what we find is that because Micron's goals and values as a company align so closely with New York's, they were fully on-board with everything that our Green CHIPS, notice the emphasis on green because we knew that they would make commitments to our environment, sustainability, and to the community at large. Measures like ensuring the use of renewable energy for their electricity, achieving high levels of energy efficiency, and meeting our greenhouse emission standards. This is a leader who's now raised the bar for other companies by meeting these standards. And the beneficiaries, the children who aren't even born yet, who will find Upstate New York their home, because of this project. We're doing this for generations to come, these investments. They wanted to have a long term, lasting impact on our environment, and not just Mother Earth, but also the environment of the community, and reaching out to underserved communities.

As we mentioned, Syracuse right here, there's a lot of people who need a good job. They need that training. Our veterans, who need that extra help when they come back from their service. So, over $500 million invested in supporting the training of people and giving them that hope and that opportunity. And I just want to say, my final comments here. In my State of the State Address, I said I would jumpstart the economy and ensure that New York State was the most business-friendly and the most worker-friendly state in the nation. Micron is one of those companies who gave New York State a second look, and a third look, and a fourth look. They're here a lot, because of our pro-growth policies, and especially now, I believe that this will be a catalyst for more supply chain companies to come here as well. New York is being seen as the place businesses want to be, and from across the nation, the best and brightest minds will continue to come here. But there's one more final reason I want to mention, on why I believe at this particular time in our nation's history, with everything that's happening, that New York is the place to be.

And as New York's first woman Governor, here's my message to all companies out there: New York will always protect basic health rights of women. We'll always support the LGBTQ community. We'll always celebrate diversity, the rights of diverse populations. And more than other, any other state, I will say we cherish the rights of all, and we'll continue to be that beacon of hope in the advancement of progress that has always been in our DNA. So, to Sanjay and the Micron family, we thank you for embracing these same values, and your confidence in New York is something we absolutely share. This is a point of enormous pride. My heart is still pacing, racing because it's extraordinary. This could have slipped away and it didn't. It's here today. This is powerful. So, I say, thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Sanjay, for just giving us a whole new lease on life here in the State of New York. And another important partner in this is the County Executive from Onondaga. He actually represents the Town of Clay, and I was thinking about the word "clay," and I reminded that for early man, clay was a foundation, you built with clay. You made things with clay. And as a result of this today, out of clay, the Town of Clay will build the foundation of the future, and that is our key, and the key is to have local partners. With that, let me welcome County Executive Ryan McMahon.