A $100 billion chip project has forced a 91-year-old woman from her home

Azalea King moved on To a house in upstate New York surrounded by sprawling cattle pastures around 1965, the time mass production of the world’s first microchips began. Now, 60 years later, the 91-year-old is on the verge of losing her home to make way for what could become the largest chip manufacturing complex in the United States.

Local authorities have threatened to exercise their power of public ownership, or seize land for public benefit, to forcibly uproot King and proceed with construction on a $100 billion campus where US tech giant Micron plans to make memory chips for use in a variety of electronics. King’s house was the only remaining residence on the 1,400-acre parcel, which once housed dozens of other homes.

Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon announced last Friday, after a week of intense negotiations, legal threats and community protests, that King’s family had agreed to a deal with local officials to move her. Terms of the agreement won’t be available until the county’s Industrial Development Agency votes to finalize it, likely in mid-December. Earlier this year, the county agency offered $100,000, while the family offered $10 million, the Syracuse Post-Standard reported. I mentioned.

“Both sides have realized that the time is now,” McMahon, who has personally participated in the talks over the past few days, said during the meeting. A press conference was broadcast live Last Friday. “All of this is driven by a national security project that will change this society for generations to come. This stuff is tough. No one wants to be where we were.”

Scott Leckstein, King’s attorney, told WIRED that her lawsuit against county authorities last week helped speed up the talks and that it was beneficial for all parties to reach an agreement. “You’ll stay in the community,” Likstein says. Several of King’s relatives did not respond to requests for comment on the deal.

Micron said it wants to begin construction in Clay, north of Syracuse, next month. But the company Can’t continue With the project until King vacates her home. It is already two to three years behind schedule, and full chip production is not expected before 2045.

The construction is part of a federal campaign begun under the Biden administration to increase domestic production of computer chips and reduce the nation’s output Reliance on Asian manufacturing. Federal, state and local Subsidies for the project That could end up being a total of about $25 billion, according to Activists are fighting some tax breaks. “You can’t accomplish a historic investment and stay in one house,” McMahon said He said last week. “These two things can’t happen together.”