In 2024, the American Council on Germany, with support from the City of Magdeburg in Germany, launched a new initiative called the German-American Semiconductor Cities Network to support semiconductor cities and communities on both sides of the Atlantic. The three-year project will help key stakeholders from German and American cities where semiconductor companies have made or will make significant investments connect with each other to share ideas and experiences and, most importantly, to identify specific strategies, measures, and best practices that can be implemented in their respective communities to support successful semiconductor ecosystems.
From November 9 to November 15, 2025, the second cohort of 24 participants in the initiative, from the German cities of Hamburg/Itzehoe and Munich and the U.S. cities of Albany (New York) and Austin (Texas), visited New York and Texas to examine firsthand how these communities are addressing workforce development and talent pipelines, supporting research and development, and establishing strong collaboration with industry and government agencies at the local and state level. Delegation members were city officials and other community stakeholders working on these topics.
On the first day, the delegation kicked off the study tour with a visit to the Port of Albany, where participants received an overview of the port’s operations and its critical role in advancing regional economic development. Discussion centered on how the port supports energy initiatives, infrastructure growth, supply chain activity, and logistics. At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) the group met with faculty and administrators to learn about RPI’s leading research, educational programs, and workforce development efforts related to the semiconductor industry. RPI has semiconductors in its DNA. Marcian “Ted” Hoff, known as the “father of the microprocessor,” Steven Sasson, inventor of the digital camera, Curtis R. Priem, cofounder of NVIDIA, and Jayant Baliga, a pioneer in power semiconductor electronics, are all graduates of RPI, and RPI alumni also founded or co-founded Texas Instruments and Fairchild Semiconductor, among others. The visit included a tour of RPI’s training clean rooms and the world’s first-ever IBM quantum computer on a university campus. The visit at RPI was rounded out with a presentation by the New York State Governor’s Office of Semiconductor Expansion, Management, and Integration (GO-SEMI), highlighting the rapid growth of New York’s semiconductor ecosystem. The growth strategy centers on permitting and site readiness, workforce development, supply chain attraction and expansion, as well as R&D and innovation.
The first day concluded with a visit to Malta Fab 8, a $15 billion advanced semiconductor manufacturing plant of GlobalFoundries (GF) that is the company’s most advanced facility. In Malta, GF employs nearly 3,000 people and produces semiconductor chips used in a wide variety of modern technology, including AI, automotive, aerospace, and defense. The visit offered insights into the company’s operations and its role within the semiconductor manufacturing landscape. The company has committed significant funds to workforce training and talent development, academic research and development projects, K-12 STEM education programming, curriculum development, and scholarships and tuition reimbursement. GF has a German facility in Dresden, known as Fab 1, which is a major European semiconductor manufacturer with a focus on specialized, high-end chips and supporting technologies for the automotive industry.
The second day began with an extensive visit to Hudson Valley Community College (HVCC) to get an overview of HVCC apprenticeship programs supporting the semiconductor industry and a tour of the school’s Center for Advanced Manufacturing Skills (CAMS). HVCC is also building a new Applied Technology Education Center, supported by funds from Global Foundries, to provide additional opportunities for training in semiconductor manufacturing and builds on the existing registered apprenticeship program implemented by HVCC and GF to train semiconductor technicians. The Albany Capital Region currently has over 10,000 people currently employed directly in the region’s semiconductor research, manufacturing, supply chain, and construction sectors with a projected need of another 14,000 such jobs in the next decade. In the afternoon, the delegation visited NY Creates, a nonprofit organization established to accelerate next-generation semiconductor technology research and support workforce development. NY Creates supports 3,000 scientists and engineers from industry, government, and academia and works with more than 200 partners worldwide in industry, research, academia, and government. During the visit, the delegation had the opportunity to tour the Albany NanoTech Complex, which provides 150,000 square feet of clean room space for industry and research institutions to drive research initiatives forward and explore opportunities for collaboration, including conducting advanced 300mm semiconductor R&D and leveraging cutting-edge equipment within state-of-the-art fabrication facilities. A discussion with key industry partners from IBM, GF, NORDTECH and TEL provided valuable insights into the Albany Capital Region’s semiconductor ecosystem and the key elements that have led to making the area a growing global innovation hub.
In Austin, the delegation first visited Austin Community College (ACC), that has built one of the leading semiconductor programs in the country in deep collaboration with industry partners. Meeting in ACC’s Innovation Hub, Make it Center, faculty and administrators described the range of programs provided including 3,000 students in registered and unregistered semiconductor technician apprenticeships, certificate, associate degree, or bachelor’s degree programs, as well as a pathway to a Master of Science in Engineering with a major in semiconductor science and engineering at UT-Austin. The group also learned about the University of Texas at Austin’s strategic initiatives to support the semiconductor industry which includes leading the Texas Institute for Electronics (TIE), a public-private partnership focused on restoring U.S. chip manufacturing, securing supply chains, and educating the next generation of innovators. The strategy includes significant state and federal funding (like a recent $840 million DARPA investment), the creation of an open-access fabrication facility for advanced technologies, and the development of a skilled workforce through new academic programs and industry partnerships. Later in the day, the group had the opportunity to attend the Texas–Korea Semiconductor Cooperation Forum at the Texas State Capitol hosted by Opportunity Austin, where the delegation heard presentations from the State of Texas CHIPS Office, Samsung Austin Semiconductor and other regional semiconductor companies, workforce development institutions, as well as local experts on the factors semiconductor companies need to examine when considering the establishment of sites in Texas.
On the final day of the study tour, the City of Austin provided a set of presentations highlighting the city’s development services and processes, water supply and waste water infrastructure, watershed protection and land use regulations, and energy and power supply. Water and energy infrastructure are critical to the semiconductor industry because chip manufacturing is an extremely intensive, high-precision process that demands vast, uninterrupted supplies of both water and reliable electricity. An official with Austin Power explained that there are “sacred substations” that the city monitors to ensure power quality and reliability to the industry. The delegation toured Austin’s Walnut Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant which processes and treats wastewater discharge from Samsung and other semiconductor manufacturers in the region. The group wrapped up the study tour in Austin with a visit to Applied Materials where the company discussed its workforce development programs and provided a tour of the manufacturing facility where they build the equipment that produces wafers – 99% of all chips produced worldwide utilize an Applied Materials machine. The company hires many workers directly out of high school and works closely with Austin Community College to train its employees. The expectation is that business will double in the next 2-3 years, so scalability and finding enough workers will be the main challenge.
Participants identified a range of issues to examine further in the coming months including: establishing exchanges between educational institutions on microtechnology; designing a local/state/federal roadmap of semiconductor assets and identifying how each region in the project contribute to the semiconductor ecosystem; strategies to support entrepreneurs in the semiconductor space; exploring how to effectively nurture the talent pool in a specific region; more deeply analyzing energy issues; and identifying key elements to successful local/state government, industry and academic collaboration. These topics and others will be discussed in monthly virtual roundtables. In May 2026, the delegation will travel together to Munich and Hamburg/Itzehoe to delve further into these issues from a first-hand German perspective.
The German-American Semiconductors Cities Network is organized and administered by the American Council on Germany and supported by the Transatlantic Program of the Federal Republic of Germany, funded by the European Recovery Program (ERP) of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE).