New era of Nanotech growth
Longtime chip industry executive’s appointment signals a readiness for expansion in Albany
Albany Nanotech, the sprawling state-owned computer chip research campus located across the street from the University at Albany, picked longtime chip industry executive David Anderson as its new leader last month.
And while Anderson’s appointment probably doesn’t concern the average Capital Region resident too much, it signals the start of a new era of growth at Albany Nanotech.
The campus is already home to 2,700 scientists and staff, as well as 1.65 million square feet of building space utilized by the
world’s top chip companies, including IBM, Samsung, Intel, Applied Materials and Tokyo Electron.
Anderson is replacing Doug Grose, a longtime semiconductor executive who steadied Albany Nanotech following a bid-rigging scandal six years ago involving Alain Kaloyeros, a former Ualbany physics professor who obtained the initial $10 million in state funding to create the campus in 1993.
In the roughly 30 years since, Albany Nanotech has attracted $15 billion in private and government funding.
Now with Congress pushing to approve $52 billion in federal subsidies to entice chip companies to build new factories across the U.S., and establish a new federal chip manufacturing research lab that could mean billions of dollars in additional funding locally, Anderson appears ready to lead a new era of growth in Albany. That is also combined with insatiable global demand for chips that are required to run nearly every device we own, from our phones and cars, to appliances and home surveillance systems.
“The industry really is at an inflection point,” Anderson said. “We are in the midst of a new growth opportunity with all the new (chip) applications and where we’re headed. And as the industry is poised to grow, we need to grow with it.”
Anderson was technically hired by NY CREATES, a quasi-government nonprofit created by the state to own and operate the Albany Nanotech campus and similar programs located in other parts of upstate.
Anderson’s first major task will be to oversee construction of Albany Nanotech’s next building — Nanofab Reflection.
Although the cost of the new building hasn’t been determined yet, it will be built as a near-replica of the largest building on campus, Nanofab Xtension, or Nanofab X.
Nanofab X was completed in 2013 and has half-a-million square feet of space, including a massive 50,000-squarefoot clean room where IBM and others test next-generation chip-making techniques. The building cost more than $300 million to build and equip, and Nanofab Reflection would likely cost the same or even more.
And if Congress finally approves its $52 billion chip subsidy fund later this year, Anderson could be looking to build a second building if Albany Nanotech is chosen as its headquarters or to be a major hub of the new lab.
The last time that any new buildings were constructed at Albany Nanotech was back in 2015, just before it was rocked by scandal.
“It’s a return to growth not only for the industry, but for this site,” Anderson said. “I think that’s an important first step. We’re at full capacity on site with our current partners and other programs, and building the new capacity, the new fab (Nanofab Reflection) will help us provide some expansion for our partners, but it will also provide us an opportunity to bring in new partners.”
Anderson won’t say who those new partners are, but IBM, the longest and perhaps the most important tenant at Albany Nanotech, is working with Samsung and soon Intel on manufacturing and new chip breakthroughs.
And if Albany Nanotech is successful in hosting the new federal chip lab — dubbed the National Semiconductor Technology Center — then almost every chip company in the world would have an interest in setting up operations in the Capital Region.
“I think we really have a strong position to play a significant role in that national effort to support R&D (research and development) for the industry,” Anderson said.