Applied Materials deal now the Albany Billion

Last week one of the most tightly guarded secrets in the Capital Region business community in a long time was announced: Applied Materials and SUNY Polytechnic Institute will partner on a seven-year, $880 million materials research program in Albany.

The deal is by far one of the biggest in the history of SUNY Poly, rivaling even the so-called Buffalo Billion, which included the $750 million Solar City solar panel factory that SUNY Poly built in western New York.

Of course, we know how the Buffalo Billion went down, with the contractors involved and SUNY Poly founder Alain Kaloyeros being charged in a federal bid-rigging scheme in 2016. Kaloyeros is now facing sentencing after being convicted this past summer.

The Applied Materials deal is more research-oriented, as opposed to the Buffalo Billion, which focused on giving government subsidies for manufacturing and existing companies.

The Albany Billion was also about a year in the making as part of a slow, deliberate process, not a fly-by-night political announcement.

“That’s how long it has been incubating,” said Howard Zemsky, CEO of Empire State Development, the state’s economic development agency.

Chief tech officer a close friend to upstate

One of the reasons the $880 million Applied Materials deal was able to come to fruition is because the company’s top scientist is well known in Capital Region circles.

Omkaram “Om” Nalamasu is chief technology officer at Applied Materials and also president of Applied Ventures, the company’s venture capital arm that is planning to invest $20 million in upstate New York startups.

Nalamasu used to be vice president for research at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, as well as a professor in materials science, engineering and chemistry at the school. He began his career at Bell Labs in the 1980s and has been a shining star in the high-tech world of nanotechnology and semiconductors.

Those who worked behind the scenes on the Applied Materials deal raved about how great it was to work with the Applied Materials folks, and Nalamasu is no exception, treating a Times Union reporter like an old friend and sitting down and chatting about the deal right before the announcement was made to give more context to the importance of the partnership.

“Coming to upstate

New York feels like home,” Nalamasu said during the company’s news conference Thursday at SUNY Poly.