AMD May Start Construction of Its NY Fab This Summer

Advanced Micro Devices officials were reported to have paid a visit to the Malta Town Hall yesterday, in order to present the town officials with an updated version of its plans regarding another semiconductor manufacturing unit in the Luther Forest Technology Campus.

The update plans reveal that the company will build three larger facilities rather than four slightly smaller buildings, as it was initially planned. Moreover, two of the semiconductor facilities will be located in Malta, while the third one will be built in Stillwater, a neighboring town that is slated to also receive a visit today.

AMD representatives yesterday asked the local officials to grant the company access to the site, as well as the permission of erecting temporary barracks that will accommodate the more than 100 involved in the building process. The representative also asked for the officials' permission to build around the clock in shifts, as the new plans stipulate.

"The sooner we can get from clearing the ground to the factory generating revenue, the better," said AMD's project manager, Terry Caudell, immediately after the two-hour meeting with the local authorities in the Malta Town Board. Given the new project's dimensions, the company will need additional workforce in the building process, which will call for 200 extra workers.

Paul Sausville, Malta Supervisor, claimed that the members of the Town Board received the new applications over the weekend and they were just learning about it. However, the local boards will collect feedback from the Malta residents in order to make the final decisions on AMD's proposals.

Advanced Micro Devices is the world's second largest manufacturer of x86 processors, and it has to solidify a commitment to building in New York, although its $1.2 billion state tax incentive package expires in July 2009. The construction of the three fabs in the plans will take up at least about two years. The constructors will start building six months after a decision is made.