Malta NY

MALTA, N.Y. — Work on a $4.2 billion chip plant supplying Advanced Micro Devices Inc. starts Friday in a woodsy patch of upstate New York — across the Atlantic from AMD's sister factories and in the middle of a recession. Even as the United States continues to bleed manufacturing jobs, AMD spinoff GlobalFoundries Inc. and its competitors in the chip industry are sinking billions into U.S. factories.

Analysts say the investments are required for technology companies to be poised for an economic upturn. And the chip industry has found U.S. sites especially important because the government restricts what kind of microprocessor work can be done overseas. Perhaps most crucially, companies rely on the willingness of governments to lure factories with massive incentives. New York committed $1.2 billion to land GlobalFoundries' factory in Malta.

The United States can be more attractive to chip makers than Europe when it comes to labor laws and environmental regulations, said Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist for market researcher In-Stat. Intel has seven U.S. factories: three in Oregon, two in Arizona and one each in Massachusetts and New Mexico. Even South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. makes chips in Austin, Texas.GlobalFoundries Chairman Hector Ruiz said the state incentives and the company's desire for a U.S. presence helped lure the chip maker to an industrial park 150 miles north of New York City.