Onsemi acquips former New Generation Power Systems plant in DeWitt, New York, for $20 million

     According to a news report published on syracuse.com, onsemi has purchased a chip fabrication plant in DeWitt that the state of New York built for $100 million. The purchase price was set at $20 million.

     Semiconductor Components Industries LLC, operating as onsemi, purchased the vacant chip plant from the state for $20 million on Dec. 13 and plans to hire up to 100 people to operate it, state officials announced Monday. The Scottsdale, Arizona-based company, which manufactures chips for powering automobiles and industrial automation, is already advertising job openings for technicians and engineers.

     Onsemi did not respond to a request for comment but has informed state officials of plans to employ 80 to 100 people to produce semiconductor components at the factory. The $20 million purchase price—well below the $100 million taxpayers spent to build and equip the plant—included the property and the equipment the state had acquired for the previous tenant, NexGen.

     The DeWitt facility was built by SUNY Polytechnic Institute with plans to lease it to Soraa Inc., a startup LED lighting manufacturer that had pledged to employ over 400 people. However, Soraa withdrew from the deal in 2017 before construction of the 82,200-square-foot building at 50 Collamer Crossings Parkway was completed.

     Empire State Development, which took ownership of the vacant building from SUNY Poly, later leased the property to NexGen, a Santa Clara, California-based startup specializing in gallium nitride-based semiconductors for power systems. NexGen, however, ceased operations shortly before Christmas last year and filed for bankruptcy.

     Onsemi purchased NexGen’s intellectual property and the equipment in the DeWitt plant that NexGen owned. As a well-established company with a global presence, onsemi operates 20 manufacturing sites worldwide and reported $8.3 billion in revenues in 2023.

     Like NexGen, onsemi manufactures gallium nitride-based semiconductors, making the DeWitt factory an attractive acquisition for the company, as the building is already equipped to produce these types of chips.