Micron pours first concrete at Clay semiconductor campus

Micron’s Clay campus poured its first concrete, moving the $100 billion semiconductor project from site preparation into vertical construction more than a quarter ahead of schedule. The milestone came on the company’s 1,400-acre parcel in Clay, where a once swampy forest has already been replaced by a flat construction zone filled with heavy machinery, trucks and crews.

The project is New York state’s largest private-sector construction effort in state history. Micron’s broader U.S. expansion now tops more than $250 billion through 2035, and the company is aiming to produce 40% of its DRAM in the United States. State materials put the Clay buildout at about 50,000 jobs over the next 20-plus years and about 2.4 million square feet of clean room space, the largest in the nation.

Chief executive Sanjay Mehrotra said the foundation will require more than 300,000 cubic yards of concrete and 100,000 tons of rebar, while more than 200 trucks are moving around the site each day. Manish Bhatia said more than 80% of the onsite workforce are New York residents.

The Town of Clay approved a $30 million community host agreement to help cover traffic, safety and other impacts. New York has announced more than $43 million in community investment funding tied to the Micron partnership, and the state launched CNY Forward to study transportation needs in northern Onondaga County. County Executive Ryan McMahon has said the region needs to build about 1,300 new housing units each year to keep pace with expected growth, and the state created a $150 million Housing Central New York Fund to support at least 2,500 new homes. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick attended the concrete pour. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pressed to steer as much of Micron’s additional U.S. investment as possible to the Clay site.