NEW YORK, USA – A US$4.4 billion high-tech research project involving five global companies will create or retain 6,900 jobs statewide, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said yesterday.

The effort involves Intel, IBM Corporation, GlobalFoundries, the Taiwan semiconductor maker TSMC and Samsung.

The companies plan to develop a next generation of computer chip technology to increase speed and capacity.

Facilities will be created or expanded at the nanotechnology center next to the state University at Albany and in Utica, East Fishkill, Canandaigua and Yorktown Heights.

Among the 6,900 jobs to be retained or created, 2,500 will be additional high-technology positions, Cuomo said, addressing economic development officials from across New York.

“This is a big deal,” he said.

The state is providing a matching investment of US$400 million in equipment and technology to the state university system over five years, Cuomo said.

John Kelly, senior vice president and director of research at IBM, said the New York-based company’s investment in research and development will be US$3.6 billion.

The goal of the so-called Global 450 consortium is to produce the next generation of computer wafer, requiring the “unprecedented” cooperation of the five companies.

“This is really about what computing systems IBM and others will construct using advance technology,” Kelly said. “Every billionth of a second, another calculation,” he said, which he predicted will help doctors diagnose advanced diseases, help pharmaceutical companies develop new drugs and improve many aspects of life.