Photo: UpstateNYer, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The glass and steel buildings along Fuller Road near the University at Albany make up one of the largest public chip research complexes in the country. Albany NanoTech grew out of state investment that started in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with companies such as IBM and Tokyo Electron taking space for shared research.
Since 2019 the site has been managed by NY CREATES, a nonprofit that runs the clean rooms and tool sets and signs research partners.
The EUV Accelerator
In 2024 Natcast, the nonprofit running the National Semiconductor Technology Center under the federal CHIPS and Science Act, named Albany as the home of its EUV Accelerator. Extreme ultraviolet lithography is the technique used to print the smallest features on today’s most advanced chips, and the machines cost well over $100 million each.
The center lets companies and universities test materials and processes on those tools without building their own fabs.
Local effect
The complex supports engineering and technician jobs and works closely with Hudson Valley Community College and other schools on training. It also gives GlobalFoundries in Malta and suppliers in the region a research partner close by.
Funding from Washington and Albany has shifted over the years, and much of the center’s future depends on federal programs continuing.
