According to New York governer's Kathy Hochul's office, once the machinery is installed, the project and its partners will begin work on next-generation chip manufacturing there. Partners include IBM, Micron, Applied Materials, and Tokyo Electron.

The expansion could help New York's bid to be designated a research hub under last year's $53 billion Chips Act.

That legislation included $11 billion for a National Semiconductor Technology Centre to foster domestic chip research and development. Expanding domestic chip manufacturing and research has become a federal and state-level priority in recent years as concern grows in the US over China's expanding grasp of the industry.

Chips are increasingly seen as a crux of geopolitical power, underlying advanced weapons for militaries and sophisticated artificial intelligence systems.