North Country Corning plant to get $32 million in CHIPS funding, expecting to add 130 jobs

By Alex Gault | Watertown Daily Times
The Corning plant in Canton is about to receive $32 million from the federal CHIPS and Science Act to expand its specialized glassmaking production line that makes critical components for semiconductors and computer chips.
In an announcement early today, Sen. Charles E. Schumer lauded the award as a major investment in the north country and New York and another victory for the CHIPS Act, which the senator shepherded to passage in 2022.
“I am proud to announce $32 million from my bipartisan CHIPS & Science Law will go to the always innovative and cutting-edge Corning Incorporated in Canton, N.Y., to boost their highly specialized glass critical to the semiconductor supply chain,” Schumer said in a statement. “This award will create hundreds of new, good paying jobs, supporting our local unions and growing manufacturing right here in the north country.”
Corning plans to put $315 million of its own money into the project. During construction, the company will invest $300,000 per year in the St. Lawrence County child care training program, with a goal of making it easier for more people to work at the plant by building up child care resources in the region.
Schumer said the expanded Canton plant will add 130 full-time manufacturing jobs, many of which will be unionized. Construction is expected to employ 175 people.
The plant currently employs about 380 people.
Once the expansion is finished, the Canton facility will be able to produce more of its high purity fused silica and ultra low expansion glass products, which are integral to the ultraviolet lithograph machines used by chip manufacturers.
“The specialized glass made right here in Canton is used in some of the most advanced machinery in the world —while making microchips we need for technology we use every day, from our phones to our computers and cars,” Schumer said. “Today Uncle Sam is giving its stamp of approval saying the north country is ready to build America’s future, creating jobs, supercharging the economy and strengthening our national security.”
When the law passed in 2022, Schumer toured the Corning plant and delivered remarks outside the building.
“Corning is central to this. We couldn’t make chips without the glass components that are made right here in Canton,” he said. “There is a huge demand for the product here. And now that we are growing chips here in America, everyone is going to need the specialized glasses that are coming out of this Canton plant.”
The whole point of the CHIPS and Science Law was to bring the production of critical computer components back to the U.S. after decades of overseas production, and New York has been a major beneficiary of the federal money made available for private companies.
Besides the Micron superfacility planned in the Syracuse area, which got $6.1 billion in federal support, CHIPS money has also gone to another Corning plant in Western New York, GlobalFoundries and Edwards Vacuum in the Albany area and Wolfspeed in the Mohawk Valley.
The glass from the Canton plant will be used in the Micron, Wolfspeed and GlobalFoundries chip production facilities.
The money is provided to these companies by the U.S. Department of Commerce with a “memorandum of terms,” which establishes how and when the money will be used.
The future of the CHIPS and Science Law is uncertain with the sweeping Republican victories in the race for the presidency and control of the U.S. Senate. Last week, Speaker of the House James “Mike” Johnson, R-La. made a campaign stop in Syracuse and told student reporter and CirtusTV political anchor Luke Radel that he expects to try to repeal the CHIPS Act if he maintains control of the House.
Johnson later backpedaled on that, saying in a statement that he had misheard the question, asked directly to him from a distance of less than two feet, and said he does not plan to repeal the CHIPS Act.
Congressman Brandon Williams, R-Syracuse, said at the time that he would be fighting to keep the CHIPS Act in effect, but Williams lost his bid for reelection Tuesday and it is not clear that a Democrat representing the region would be able to stop a repeal.
Conservatives in Washington have criticized the childcare and union job requirements in the bill — the same requirements that are getting Corning to provide $300,000 per year for childcare training, and Johnson said he may attempt to amend the law instead to remove those “costly regulations and Green New Deal requirements.”
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