Construction on Cree’s new $1 billion facility in Marcy is almost complete.

“The FAB is going to be substantially completed, at least the exterior by hopefully June July of this year, it’s a longer process than just that,” Nick Bruno, Associate Vice President-Business Development at Mohawk Valley EDGE explained. “They got to go into a tool install, where they’ll start ramping up and putting tools into the FAB and that’s going to be another longer process, so hopefully by the end of 2021 you’re going to start seeing some product coming out, test product and then they’ll be ultimately able to supply their customers by 2022.”

The chip manufacturing company began building its Marcy site in 2019, to increase the companies influence in the semiconductor business. The Mohawk Valley FAB will be the world’s largest silicon carbide device manufacturing facility.

“I mean silicon makes up all the semiconductor chips out there,” Bruno explained. “Silicon carbide is a more effective chip for a lot of industries that are coming online in the future, with electric vehicles 5G, it’s kind of the next hopeful chip of the future.”

Car manufacturers across the country have had to slow down their production lines as the semiconductor shortage continues. This makes the Marcy site more valuable than ever.

“You don’t realize it now,” Bruno said. “I mean it’s kinda crazy because we’re in COVID and you’re looking at something that’s going to drastically change the whole Mohawk Valley and we’re not even seeing everything really as it could be, so it’s only going to get better from here.”

The company currently has over 30 job openings for their Marcy site alone, with many posted in the last week. These jobs range from facilities systems engineer, to process technicians and receptionist positions. Bruno explained that they are ramping up soon and hope to hire around 100 people to work there by this summer. And these jobs are just the beginning as Cree plans on increasing the number of employees at their Marcy site every three years. In 2023 they plan on having 270 jobs, in 2026, 414 jobs and by 2029, 614 jobs for their Mohawk Valley FAB.

By: DocMemory
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