Michigan lost $100B project after pursuing semiconductor giant for 15 months
Michigan officials lost out on a $100 billion semiconductor investment last year after spending 15 months trying to lure Micron Technology to a rural tract of land near Lansing in Clinton County.
Overtures to the business included an incentive offer that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's administration refuses to make public, letters of support from legislative leaders, handwritten notes from Whitmer, and pledges of cooperation from the directors of Michigan’s transportation and environmental departments, according to records obtained by The Detroit News.
But on Oct. 4, Michigan’s efforts to land “Project Copper” fell to New York’s successful bid for what it dubbed “Project Yankee,” when Micron Technology announced it would set up a sprawling semiconductor manufacturing campus and create 9,000 direct jobs near Syracuse. The up to $100 billion investment over two decades is expected to result in more than 40,000 indirect spinoff jobs.
New York offered the Idaho-based semiconductor giant nearly $6 billion in incentives; Michigan will not disclose how much in taxpayer money it offered the company to locate in rural Eagle Township.
Project Copper was one of four projects the state’s Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve fund was built around in December 2021, as the state looked to rev up economic development efforts after Dearborn-based Ford Motor Co. announced plans to construct new electric vehicle battery plants in Tennessee and Kentucky,
More than 300 pages of emails related to Michigan’s bid for Micron give a glimpse of the breakneck speed with which the state attempted to assemble a tempting offer to capture the lucrative industry. Those efforts ultimately fell short.
But the public has largely been kept in the dark about Michigan’s misses because dozens of local, state and federal officials and their staffers signed contracts agreeing not to speak about the efforts — even when, four weeks before the November 2022 election, Michigan lost one of the largest economic developments it had ever pursued.
Efforts to obtain information on the project after the fact were met with delay.
A Detroit News public records request filed last fall seeking emails related to the failed attempt took more than six months for the agency to satisfy. About a dozen email chains involving up to eight state employees were not provided to The News out of fear that doing so would endanger "frank" communication. Key incentive offer data was redacted and repeatedly refused after subsequent requests by The News. And any reference to Micron or Eagle Township was redacted from the more than 300 pages provided under a Freedom of Information Act request.
The News confirmed the business name and location through separate documentation obtained from a source not at liberty to speak on the state's pursuit of the Micron investment.
Micron declined to comment on specific states that were considered for the development, telling The News: "We undertook a rigorous site selection process and chose New York because it was the most competitive state."
Officials at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and the Lansing Economic Area Partnership agreed to interviews with The News, but would not confirm the company or planned location involved in last year’s 15-month-long bid for Micron.
Josh Hundt, executive vice president and chief projects officer for the MEDC, said the pursuit of Project Copper marked one of the largest and most complex efforts he’d seen the agency undertake. While Michigan didn’t win the project, the effort is representative of the coordination and determination the state is capable of, he said.
“I’ve been with the MEDC close to 20 years,” Hundt said. “Where Michigan is in terms of our ability to compete for major projects like Project Copper, as well as projects that we’ve won, is something that I haven’t seen in any of my time here in terms of the way we’re able to compete and win.”
The Lansing Economic Area Partnership has been open about its intent to attract a semiconductor facility to the 1,400-acre Michigan Manufacturing Innovation Campus in Eagle Township as part of an effort to “re-shore and secure” the nation’s supply chain in Michigan, said Bob Tresize, president and CEO for the group.
“We have the opportunity to put together a whole new supply chain of the future,” Tresize said.
How Michigan pursued Micron
Employee emails obtained by The News through a public records request indicate Michigan pursued Micron for roughly 15 months ahead of making offers to the business in September that, according to state emails, were presented to the company's board for consideration.
The offer packets included letters from Whitmer, the directors of the transportation and environmental departments and the state’s legislative quadrant at the time: Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake; House Speaker Jason Wentworth, R-Farwell; Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint; and House Democratic Leader Donna Lasinski, D-Scio Township.
Michigan's bid for Micron also indicated well drillings, geotechnical borings and vibration studies were being conducted for a potential development. The offer packet included information on potential road improvements, new housing to accommodate an influx of workers, and plans to expand the workforce by educating and training workers for the facility, proposing a "Copper Campus" featuring onsite training and partnerships with local universities. Former Michigan State University President Samuel Stanley was instrumental in connecting MEDC officials with Micron, according to an email from MEDC CEO Quentin Messer Jr.
Emails obtained by The News indicate Micron was one of four projects Michigan’s economic incentive program — the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve, or SOAR, fund — was built around, though the incentive program would grow to benefit other developments as well. The four initial projects included Micron; a second undisclosed project the state also lost; a $6.5 billion General Motors electric vehicle expansion of its Orion Township plant and construction of an EV battery plant in the Lansing area; and a $2.3 billion Gotion battery plant near Big Rapids.
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On Sept. 1, Whitmer, in a letter to the “Project Copper team,” indicated her continued commitment to work with the company and announced that, as of Sept. 1, “we have control of the site, on schedule, and can meet requirements and the requested completion date.” The governor asked the company that Michigan be the “’last-at-bat’ as you near your final decision.”
In a second letter dated Sept. 9, Whitmer indicated that the state had increased the amount of SOAR incentive money it was willing to offer and added in a handwritten note that “Team Michigan has moved mountains" to secure the project.
In a letter from the legislative leaders the same day, the lawmakers said they were prepared to be “strong and successful partners” in securing the investment.
“We can say in no uncertain terms that Michigan will welcome and support (redacted) as no other place will,” the letter signed by Shirkey, Ananich, Wentworth and Lasinski said.
Days after Michigan's last communication with Micron, the company announced it would be locating near Syracuse.
How New York landed Micron
On Oct. 4, Micron announced it would spend up to $100 billion over roughly 20 years on a new, four-fab mega-development in Clay, New York, with plans to invest $20 billion by the end of the decade on the first phase.
The investment is expected to create 9,000 direct jobs and another 40,000 indirect jobs in New York, the company said in a press release.
New York, which had dubbed the development “Project Yankee,” committed to giving Micron up to $5.5 billion in refundable tax credits, New York’s economic development agency told The Post-Standard newspaper in Syracuse. The company will get millions more tax dollars through Onondaga County and the state power authority.
New York is already home to roughly 76 semiconductor companies, including GlobalFoundries, IBM and Wolfspeed, according to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's office. Part of the incentive package offered in New York included a $10 million investment by Onondaga County to establish with Syracuse University a semiconductor research program and a $5 million county grant for workforce attraction to help with hiring for the project.
In a statement to The News, Micron said it chose New York for its diverse talent pool of workers, its "urban and outdoor lifestyles," affordable cost of living, universities and "a long history of semiconductor development and manufacturing, including the Albany NanoTech Complex and U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory.
"The $5.5 billion in incentives from the state of New York over the life of the project are critical to support hiring and capital investment," the company said Monday.
As news of the investment spread nationally on Oct. 4, Messer wrote to more than 30 state officials to notify them that “Project Copper will not call Michigan home,” according to an unredacted copy of Messer's email obtained through a source.
But Messer told officials the state had "already won" because it demonstrated a “seriousness and an ability to deliver for semiconductor companies across the industry’s value chain.”
“Team Michigan moved mountains and literally did what many thought was impossible: make Michigan a really real contender for the largest economic development project in North America," Messer wrote.
The email mentioned three other semiconductor projects still in the works: Projects Tiger, Spire and American Memory. It’s not clear which companies or locations those projects involve.
Messer noted New York’s $5.5 billion in incentives amounted to about 7.4% of Michigan’s entire budget for that year.
“I will let that sink in for a moment,” he wrote.
Whitmer responded with an email agreeing with Messer and thanking the team that worked on the effort.
“We made it very difficult on them — in all the best ways,” Whitmer wrote in an Oct. 4 email obtained by The News through an open records request.
The next day, Whitmer would appear in Big Rapids to formally announce Gotion's planned $2.3 billion investment for an EV battery parts plant on the outskirts of Big Rapids.
Who was in the loop
In the months after Micron announced its plans to go to New York, residents in Eagle Township began to voice concerns about the agricultural land being marketed for industrial use.
They also criticized the secrecy surrounding negotiations for the property — something officials say is a standard demand from companies looking to engage with the state while protecting proprietary expansion plans. State officials have argued there are plenty of steps in the process of procuring such an investment that take place in public, such as local and state votes on the approval of tax incentives and abatements.
As Michigan submitted its final offer to Micron in September, more than three dozen state and federal officials and staffers were looped into negotiations, according to emails, but very few local officials were aware of the exact parameters of the deal.
The area’s local lawmakers at the time — former Sen. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, and Rep. Graham Filler, R-St. Johns — told The News they were given little to no information on the expansion, including the name of the company the state was courting. Neither had signed nondisclosure agreements, and Barrett generally has opposed tax incentive deals for private companies.
Eagle Township Supervisor Patti Schafer — who is the subject of a recall effort related to a nondisclosure agreement she signed to gain information on the potential development — said she was given few details about the company the state was pursuing.
“We never heard the name until it was already gone,” Schafer said.
Schafer said she heard the company was Micron from her kids, who passed along news stories about New York’s Oct. 4 announcement.
Among those copied on the Oct. 4 email from Messer and privy to the pursuit of Micron were the Republican and Democratic legislative leaders, the governor’s office, staff and directors from several state departments, representatives of Consumers Energy and the electric transmission company ITC Holdings Corp., and staffers from the offices of U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin and U.S. Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters. Several other email addresses were redacted from documents obtained by The News.
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