NY Creates and JETRO Formalize U.S.-Japan Semiconductor Collaboration

A strategic partnership signed in Tokyo connects New York’s Capital Region to Japan’s semiconductor ecosystem

Japan supplies a large share of the equipment, materials, and expertise that the global semiconductor industry runs on. New York’s Capital Region has spent two decades building the R&D infrastructure to match. In December 2024, the two formalized a strategic partnership when NY Creates President Dave Anderson and JETRO Chairman Norihiko Ishiguro signed a memorandum of understanding at the Japan External Trade Organization’s headquarters in Tokyo.

The agreement commits both organizations to promoting advanced chips-related research and development, technology alliances, and workforce development across the high-tech ecosystems of New York and Japan.

Connecting two networks

JETRO is the Japanese government’s trade and investment organization, with reach into companies, universities, and regional ecosystems across the country. NY Creates operates the Albany NanoTech Complex and maintains partnerships with more than 2,700 industry experts and faculty. The partnership is designed to link those networks: business matching events, invitation programs for U.S. companies visiting Japan, and delegations of Japanese semiconductor companies traveling to New York.

The first joint activity followed within days. NY Creates and JETRO co-hosted a seminar at SEMICON Japan in Tokyo on the current state of the U.S.-Japan semiconductor ecosystem and the business opportunities in collaboration, with NY Creates and Empire State Development leaders presenting alongside regional Japanese officials from Hokkaido, Hiroshima, and Kumamoto.

“This partnership with JETRO represents a critical step in pursuing additional synergies between our semiconductor R&D, workforce, and economic advancement efforts.”
Dave Anderson, President, NY Creates

Built on existing ties

New York’s relationship with Japan’s semiconductor industry is not new. Tokyo Electron has operated its Technology Center America at the Albany NanoTech Complex for more than 20 years, and the company is a partner in the complex’s $10 billion High NA EUV lithography center. The JETRO agreement followed a similar partnership with the Hokkaido government in August 2024 and preceded a $75 million R&D agreement with SCREEN.

The pattern is deliberate. As the global industry reorganizes its supply chains, New York is positioning itself as the U.S. partner of choice for allied nations’ semiconductor ecosystems, with the research facilities and the government relationships to deliver on it.

Sources: NY Creates press release, December 9, 2024 and JETRO release (signing location and seminar details)

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