Biden Visits Poughkeepsie, Talks About Creating Tech Jobs At IBM

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY — President Joe Biden visited Dutchess County Thursday, taking a tour of the Poughkeepsie IBM facility and speaking about creating jobs around the country.

The president was joined by Gov. Kathy Hochul and Reps. Sean Patrick Maloney and Pat Ryan, who greeted him when he landed at Stewart Air National Guard Base in New Windsor.

Biden was making his first visit to the Hudson Valley. The last time a sitting president came to Dutchess County was during the Clinton administration.

The president was preceded by IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, who announced a $20 billion investment by the company in the Hudson Valley that would help give the United States a technological edge against China.

Standing in front of signs that said “A Future Made in America,” Biden talked about IBM's investment as part of a larger manufacturing boom, spurred by this summer's passage of a $280 billion measure intended to boost the semiconductor industry and scientific research.

He said the CHIPS & Science Act would bring about technology that was vital for the economy of the United States as well as its security.

“The United States has to lead the world of producing these advanced chips — this law is going to make sure that it will,” Biden said.

“There’s nothing, nothing the U.S. is unable to do if we set our mind to it and we do it together,” he said.

IBM's $20 billion investment over the next decade is intended to bolster research and development and manufacturing of semiconductors, mainframe technology, artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

“As we tackle large-scale technological challenges in climate, energy, transportation and more, we must continue to invest in innovation and discovery — because advanced technologies are key to solving these problems and driving economic prosperity, including better jobs, for millions of Americans," Krishna said.

IBM's commitment comes on the heels of chipmaker Micron announcing this week an investment of up to $100 billion over the next 20-plus years to build a plant in upstate New York that could create 9,000 factory jobs. In his remarks, Biden also celebrated Intel's plant groundbreaking in Ohio and an investment by WolfSpeed for chip production in North Carolina.

After leaving Poughkeepsie, Biden was scheduled to travel to central New Jersey for a fundraiser at the home of Gov. Phil Murphy in support of the Democratic National Committee. In the evening, Biden planned to attend a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraiser in Manhattan hosted by James Murdoch, the son of News Corp. publisher Rupert Murdoch.

James Murdoch and his wife, Kathryn, a climate change activist, were major donors to Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. In 2020, Murdoch resigned from the board of News Corp. amid differences over editorial content at his father's company, which operates The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post. The elder Murdoch is also chairman of Fox Corp., which includes Fox News Channel.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.