Construction of semiconductor fabs on Micron’s $100bn campus faces two-year delay

In August this year, it emerged that contractor Gilbane is leading early construction activity for the manufacturing facility in Clay, New York.

Initial site clearing and grading work has already started at the 1,300-acre site in White Pine Commerce Park north of Syracuse. Micron is planning to build and operate a dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) semiconductor manufacturing facility at the park, as well as a rail spur and construction materials facility, as well as childcare, healthcare, and recreation centres for staff.

The proposed project would take place over 16 years, with a total of four fabrication plants (fabs) being built two at a time.

But in a final environmental impact statement for the project, it was revealed that Micron and the CHIPS Program Office (set up to administer the CHIPS Incentives Program under the bipartisan CHIPS Act aimed at accelerating US production of logic and memory chips) have amended their funding agreement.

The amendment has modified the time in which Micron would have the option to commence construction of semiconductor fabs 1 and 2 by two years.

Construction of fab 1, originally planned to start in Q4 of 2025 ahead of completion in Q2 2028 would, under the revised schedule, begin in Q2 of 2026 and extend to Q3 of 2030. Meanwhile, fab 2 would begin in Q4 of 2030 and end in Q4 of 2033, instead of beginning in Q3 2028 and ending in Q4 2030.

Because of the delays to fabs 1 and 2, construction of the childcare centre would be pushed back from 2026 to 2028, while the scheduled start for the healthcare and recreation centres would move from 2030 to 2032, to account for the later arrival of employees.

This would have a further knock-on effect for the start date of fab 3, which would be changed from Q3 2033 to Q3 2035. The commencement of work on fab 4 would be delayed by one calendar quarter.

Despite the changes, final construction would still be completed by 2041, and full four-fab production would still take place by the end of 2045.

The report said the changes to the construction schedule would not materially change the assessment of environmental effects in the area and could, in fact, “slightly lessen” the impact.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the project is still due to take place in December 2025, in spite of the potential delay to the construction schedule.

Representatives of Onodoga County told local reporters that the proposed delays were normal for such a large project and would allow Micron greater flexibility in construction, with fab construction in generally taking longer than anticipated, partly due to labour shortages, according to Syracuse.com.

Micron itself has not commented on the situation.