Vote set today on $300M Sematech funding

A state oversight board plans to decide this afternoon whether to approve $300 million for International Sematech's move to Albany.

The five-member Public Authorities Control Board is the last group that needs to sign off on bonds that the state Legislature approved in May 2007. The state's economic development arm has also approved the funding, which International Sematech will match.

International Sematech is a subsidiary of Sematech Inc., an Austin, Texas, consortium of computer microchip manufacturing companies. The company has had a research operation at the University at Albany since 2002. It currently has about 250 employees on campus.

Now, International Sematech--which focuses on semiconductor manufacturing and research--will add an extra 450 jobs by moving its headquarters to the area.

Those jobs will be housed at UAlbany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, on the Albany NanoTech campus. The school previously said those positions will have an average annual salary that's 75 percent higher than the average private-sector job in New York, at close to $100,000.

Sematech's member companies have pledged additional funding for the move. Construction on a $150 million, 250,000-square-foot headquarters at UAlbany's NanoTech campus is ongoing.