The Rise of Techufacturing

It’s a new day in the USA.

Assuming scores of companies carry through with their pledges to develop U.S.-based manufacturing facilities, American industry is poised for an extraordinary industrial resurgence. The manufacturing sector’s decline since the 1980s, driven by global supply chains and the economy’s shift to services, led to economic hardship in many states, shuttering factories and driving down employment and population. But multiple industry sources now are optimistic that the country’s manufacturing rebirth will revitalize these and other regions, bringing back jobs and economic stability.

Over the last year, companies in diverse industries have publicized an astounding series of billion-dollar investments to build or expand U.S. manufacturing plants. Much of the planned spending by domestic businesses involves reshoring, moving production from foreign locales back to American soil, but many foreign companies also have pledged to construct or augment factories in the United States.

While the companies making these commitments range widely by industry, the number of tech-driven investments stands out. Both semiconductor manufacturers and businesses planning to build massive data centers predicated on fulfilling the corporate sector’s artificial intelligence (AI) technology ambitions are taking advantage of states that offer a welcoming atmosphere for these plants.

If it all comes to fruition, Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump deserve credit for the country’s manufacturing renaissance. Both believe a stronger national manufacturing base will reduce reliance on imported goods, encourage domestic production, increase manufacturing employment, and potentially flatten the U.S. trade deficit. Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and CHIPS and Science Act created more than 700,000 new manufacturing jobs during his term, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. In the first three months of Trump’s term, estimated construction spending related to manufacturing was $55.802 billion, a 4.0% increase from the same period in 2024, U.S. Census Bureau figures indicate.

On April 2, Trump announced a baseline 10% tariff on all imports into the United States (minus Canada and Mexico), along with higher tariffs against dozens of countries.

Afterward, many U.S. and foreign companies announced new or expanded manufacturing plants in the United States. While the tariff policy has proved changeable and faces challenges in the courts, it seems to have had its intended effect. “The mere threat of tariffs seems to be doing a sufficient job of defining the objective: the U.S. must boost domestic manufacturing to strengthen national security, reduce the trade deficit, and support economic stability,” the nonprofit Reshoring Institute stated. “The pressure is driving companies to rethink their supply chains and commit to localization.”

Among the companies that have committed to spend millions to billions of dollars to build out manufacturing domestically are Ford, Eli Lilly, Tesla, Apple, Nvidia, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Micron, Roche, Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis, Hyundai, Merck, and Sanofi, according to the Trump administration.

Altogether, domestic and foreign firms across multiple manufacturing sectors including technology, pharmaceuticals, and consumer products have pledged to spend approximately $8 trillion in the United States. Some of that, though, has been planned previously, according to separate reporting.

Not every country or industry will make good on its pledge, given the ongoing tariff wars. In early June, for instance, The Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese-owned Automotive Energy Supply halted construction of a $1.6 billion battery factory in South Carolina due to what one company representative called “economic uncertainty arising from current federal policy and tax issues.”

Still, as new and more modern plants come online domestically, the insurance industry’s capacity will be drawn upon to financially absorb the breakdown and repair of highly automated equipment and rising commercial property exposures in an era of climate change-fueled disasters. The growth in U.S. manufacturing also reemphasizes the need for business interruption insurance, trade credit insurance, and especially cyber insurance, given the enormous corporate demand for AI technologies, which has ignited the data center-building boom.

Insurance brokers are bullish on these buoyant prospects. “Our manufacturing clients see great opportunities ahead that are a long time coming,” says Shalin Johnson, vice president, senior risk consultant, and national manufacturing industry practice co-leader at Marsh McLennan Agency. “As someone who works in the manufacturing space, I’m excited for the opportunities our manufacturing leaders have to be entrepreneurial.”

Randy Nornes, executive vice president and enterprise client partner at Aon, had this to say: “The pivot to AI-fueled manufacturing in the U.S. is a story of American innovation and creative entrepreneurship.

As it ensues amidst supply chain uncertainties, the insurance industry will continue to ensure the resiliency of U.S. businesses.”

Semiconductor Regional Revival

The CHIPS and Science Act has been a catalyst for semiconductor manufacturing in the United States. In total, the Act would provide over $52 billion to promote semiconductor manufacturing. As of August 2024, the Biden administration had announced $30 billion in planned investments across 23 projects in 15 states.

Some states and cities that have the necessary infrastructure for building semiconductor manufacturing plants and data centers are creating a friendly environment for the investment and promoting their own revivals.

Boise, Idaho

Thanks to significant reductions in regulatory red tape, low taxes and unemployment, and relatively cheap power compared to other states, manufacturing is on the upswing in Idaho’s capital city. “Every eight years, we review every regulation in the state; we’ve slashed pages and pages of regulations,” says state Sen. Kelly Anthon (R). “In making decisions on places to invest in, businesses need to know what the regulatory and tax situation will be like for the next five years. Capital follows stability.”

Idaho also has reduced corporate and personal income taxes multiple times over the past decade, most recently in March 2025 with the largest tax cut in state history. “We went from a top income tax bracket of 17.6% 10 years ago to what is now 5.3% to 5.6%,” Anthon says.

The result is that both Boise and the state are among the fastest-growing regions in the nation. From 2010 to 2024, the Boise metropolitan area added around 230,000 residents, bringing the total population to 845,874. Over the past decade, Idaho’s population has risen nearly 20% to just over 2 million. Meanwhile, unemployment is at 3.7%, compared to the national 4.2% as of May.

The state’s economic prospects are driven by factors including taxes and regulations, Anthon says. Logistics capability is another plus. “People think potatoes when they think Idaho. Like other perishable products, it has to move to market quickly. To do that, we’ve developed an excellent logistic system that has made us one of the top states for food production, processing, and science,” he says.

Yogurt maker Chobani recently invested $500 million to expand production at its Twin Falls facility. Last fall, Mart Frozen Foods, maker of frozen OH! Tatoes, opened a $65 million food production plant in Rupert.

But the biggest investment in Idaho is from a homegrown company. Micron Technology, founded in Boise as a four-person semiconductor design company in 1978, is investing $15 billion to build a new memory manufacturing facility in its headquarters city. “Micron is finding that it’s easier to put more of their business in Boise because [of] our regulatory scheme,” Anthon says.

Upstate New York

Micron Technology is also behind a major investment in the revitalization of upstate New York. The company has pledged to invest about $100 billion to construct a new semiconductor fabrication facility, estimated to create nearly 50,000 jobs, in Clay, 9 miles northwest from Syracuse. According to the company’s press release, incentives from the state combined with “anticipated federal grants and tax credits from the CHIPS and Science Act are critical to support hiring and capital investment. In addition, the town of Clay and Onondaga County are providing key infrastructure support for Micron’s new leading-edge semiconductor facility.” Micron’s diverse suppliers are expected to consider relocation to the region, says Tom Kucharski, president and CEO at Invest Buffalo Niagara, a nonprofit economic development organization. “We’re seeing a revival in investment and entrepreneurial innovation and spirit,” he says.

CHIPS funding is also fueling construction of a $300 million dry pump manufacturing facility in Genesee County, with an $18 million federal award to Edwards Vacuum, a manufacturer of sophisticated vacuum products for the semiconductor industry. Other investors in the area include biotech company Norgen Biotek, which plans to spend $5 million in building a 2,800-square-foot manufacturing facility in Niagara Falls, and Worksport, a maker of truck bed covers, which is committing $6 million to expanding its manufacturing facility in West Seneca, adding 280 jobs.

During World War II, the Buffalo region was a major manufacturing hub, ranking ninth in total production in the nation. The region boasted thriving manufacturing sectors encompassing automotive, aviation, and steel.

That began to change in 1982, after Bethlehem Steel closed its 83-year-old plant in Lackawanna, just south of Buffalo, due to rising costs and reduced demand, resulting in the loss of 7,300 jobs. “Once the large manufacturers closed down operations, the ancillary suppliers followed suit,” Kucharski says.

Today is a different story. The region’s industrial vacancy rate, 1.9%, is among the lowest in the country, according to CBRE. “We just received thousands of startup applications for five manufacturing entrepreneurs to receive $1 million to relocate here, part of the 43North accelerator program unded by Empire State Development (the state’s chief economic development agency),” says Kucharski. “People didn’t want to move here because of the weather, which isn’t all that different from other parts of the country. Chicago and Boston get as much snow as we get. We’ve changed the narrative now and they are coming.”

Five years from now, Kucharski predicts that upstate New York will be widely known as “an innovative, affordable, knowledge-based place with four seasons right down the road from Toronto. We’re at an inflection point.”

Sacramento, California

Across the country, Sacramento is also making a comeback rooted in technology-based manufacturing. Barry Broome, president and CEO of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council, cites the importance of the sprawling region’s long economic ties to Silicon Valley. Greater Sacramento encompasses the state capital, as well as Yolo, Placer, El Dorado, Sutter, Rancho Cordova, Folsom, Yuba, and a couple counties in Nevada.

“Following the 2008 crash, we were among the hardest-hit towns in America and the last to recover. We didn’t have the sharp downward spike and revival like Detroit and Las Vegas because California is neither a tax haven nor regulation-free,” says Broome.

The lingering economic malaise guided the formation of the council and Broome’s hiring as CEO in 2015.

Its board included 55 area CEOs and 22 public officials. The following year, Sacramento was the second-worst city in the country for young people to find employment. The solution, Broome says, was to deepen and diversify the economy. Fast-forward to the present and Greater Sacramento is in the top 10 nationally in regional economic growth, seventh in jobs, and is the eighth-fastest growing market for college education. Sacramento ranks behind Austin and Seattle as the top three cities in attracting technology workers. “Forty percent of all silicon carbide chip production for semiconductors comes out of Roseville, a community within Sacramento,” Broome notes.

The chips’ performance attributes, including power density and durability, are superior to traditional silicon chips, making them a preferred alternative for applications in electric vehicles, military drones, and battery technology. In 2024, Bosch received $225 million in federal CHIPS Act funding to support the expansion of its Roseville production facility. The German multinational engineering and technology company plans to invest $1.9 billion to transform the facility to produce and test silicon carbide semiconductors.

Other manufacturers have awakened to the region’s attractions. Aside from a strong economy, job market, and highly educated population, Greater Sacramento boasts access to outdoor recreation, lower housing costs, and lower-priced electricity compared to the rest of the state. The Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s rates are generally half that of Oakland-based Pacific Gas & Electric.

These attributes drew Solidigm, a U.S.-based provider of NAND flash memory semiconductor chips, used in data storage systems, to open its new global headquarters in Rancho Cordova in 2023. Previously, the company had invested $100 million in building a 200,000-square-foot global research and development facility in the city. Plans are afoot to increase employment from over 700 workers to 2,000.

Other economic news in the region includes the IPO of El Dorado-based Blaize, a maker of AI chips designed for edge computing, giving it access to growth capital, and Samsung Semiconductor’s opening of an advanced computer lab to create technology for AI, data centers, mobile phones, and automotive chips. The growing cluster of investments makes Greater Sacramento home to nine of the world’s largest semiconductor companies, including Micron, Samsung, and Intel. “As tech companies reshore from Taiwan, China, and Vietnam, industry growth here is projected to double in size by 2040, from around $1 trillion to $2 trillion,” Broome says. “It’s amazing how fast AI is coming and how it will positively affect our economy and others.