Micron Technology, which is investing $100 billion into a semiconductor plant in Syracuse, will need the type of sophisticated vacuum technology Edwards produces to finish the microchips. Edwards is expected to be a supplier to the biggest microchip plants, like Micron, and others across the world.

Thanks to projects like these and more in the works in the region, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer said, by the end of the decade, 25% of the microchips made in the U.S. will come from the I-90 corridor.

Edwards Vacuum has begun construction on the plant at the Science, Technology and Advanced Manufacturing Park, or STAMP, in the Town of Alabama. STAMP sits between Buffalo and Rochester and is designed to attract large-scale, high-tech tenants.

“We needed to find something new. It pained me to see jobs leave upstate New York,” Schumer said during a groundbreaking Tuesday. “But, now, we’re back.”

Edwards will work hand in hand with their customers in the semiconductor fabrication industry to further grow the tech economy in Western New York.

“This facility would be meaningless if not for the growth in the U.S.-based fab market,” said Kent Stobbart, vice president of operations for Edwards Semiconductor Division.

The project is expected to create 600 jobs, as well as hundreds of construction jobs. Nearly 300 of those jobs are expected to come by 2026, according to Geert Follens, president of the vacuum technique business area for Edwards. The company hopes to occupy its 240,000-square-foot, all-electric plant by late 2025. It will have the capacity to make 10,000 pumps annually.

Local workers will train at sites like the Northland Workforce Training Center and Monroe Community College.

“We don’t want all of this technology and great jobs just to go to New York City, San Francisco and Boston,” Schumer said. “We wanted it to come to more rural places and middle and small size city.”

The project is benefiting from federal incentives from Schumer’s CHIPS & Science Act and will be a key part of upstate’s federal tech hub designation initiative. Edwards Vacuum chose to build a manufacturing park in Western New York almost two years ago after Schumer reached out to Follens to discuss his plan to create a semiconductor superhighway along the I-90 corridor.

“This is a challenge we don’t take lightly,” Follens said.

The project hasn’t come without some issues, most notably with a wastewater pipeline.

The Tonawanda Seneca Nation called for terminating a permit allowing construction of an industrial wastewater and sewage pipeline through the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in late April announced it was pulling the permit.

Mark Masse, president and CEO of Genesee County Economic Development Center, said it will be looking at alternative options for the sanitary sewer so the complex will be able to handle the Edwards facility when it opens.

“We’re moving forward with the construction and getting the approvals we need to be able to enable Edwards to can operate their facility,” he said.

The project is receiving up to $21 million in incentives from New York state, including tax credits related to it meeting its job and investment promises. It also is receiving low-cost hydropower from the New York Power Authority.   It also is eligible for even more lucrative federal investment tax credits under the CHIPS Act.

“This is a project that at times has become quite challenging for us,” Stobbart said. “But I can’t believe the progress we’ve made in the past few weeks, in fact, not even months.”