Biden cheers $20B IBM investment in N.Y.’s Hudson Valley
Biden toured IBM’s Poughkeepsie facility before delivering remarks about what the White House calls a nationwide “manufacturing boom” spurred by his economic plan, which includes a bipartisan $280 billion semiconductor and scientific research bill passed earlier this summer.
“It’s here at this factory, and the factories of other companies across America, where America’s future is literally being built, because of the groundbreaking CHIPS and Science Act that I signed into law,” the president said.
“It was here in Poughkeepsie where the rifles for World War I were made,” Biden said. “The first electric typewriters, calculators, even cough drops. were made. And it is here now where the Hudson Valley could become an epicenter of the future of quantum computing.”
IBM’s Poughkeepsie facility is the company’s only site that builds mainframe systems, and is home to its first Quantum Computation Center. The company aims to make the a global hub for the company’s quantum computing development, IBM said in a release.
The president said that quantum computing “has the potential to transform everything from how we create new medicines to how we power artificial intelligence” and highlighted the importance of semiconductor manufacturing in the United States, not only for job creation, but for making the U.S. economy independent of other nations.
“As we saw during the pandemic, when factories when factories that make these chips shut down around the world, the global economy literally comes to a screeching halt,” Biden said. “More Americans learned the phrase ‘supply chain’ and what it means. Well guess what? The supply chain is going to start here and end here in the United States.”
Biden blamed the shortage of chips as a major driver of inflation, citing higher prices of cars, which require semiconductors.
“Folks, we need to make these chips here in America, to bring down everyday costs and create good-paying American jobs,” the president said. “Don’t take my word for it. Listen to the leaders of IBM and across the country. They’re making decisions right now about where to invest and produce these chips. And they’re choosing America because they see we’re coming back, we’re leading the way.”
“This is about economic security, folks,” Biden said. “It’s about national security. It’s about good-paying jobs you can raise a family on. Jobs now, jobs for the Future. Jobs in every part of our country, and that’s what we’re going to see here in this factory in the beautiful Hudson Valley. People of all ages, all races, all backgrounds, with advanced degrees to no degrees, working side-by-side, doing the most sophisticated manufacturing the world has ever seen.”
Biden toured the facility with Gov. Kathy Hochul and Democratic Reps. Sean Patrick Maloney, Paul Tonko, and Pat Ryan, House incumbents in competitive races in the region. Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, a Republican who lost to Rep. Ryan in a special election for New York’s 19th Congressional District in August, was in attendance for the event as well. Molinaro is running again in November against Democrat Josh Riley in a newly redrawn 19th District.
“I’m more optimistic about America’s chances today than I have been in my entire career,” Biden said as he toured the facility.
