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IBM Seeks To Bring Next-Gen Quantum Computing To Mid-Hudson Valley
IBM has unveiled plans for a new quantum computing facility at its Poughkeepsie campus. The facility is roughly 511,000-square-feet where the company intends to assemble and manufacture its next-generation Starling quantum systems, in what some county officials are calling one of the most significant investments in Dutchess County’s history. The proposal, presented before the Town of Poughkeepsie Planning Board, calls for the demolition of two existing buildings totaling 161,000 square feet to make way for the new facility on the southwest corner of the property. When complete, the building would bring IBM’s total Poughkeepsie footprint to between 3.5 and 3.9 million square feet across 45 buildings. The projected workforce for the new facility is approximately 200 employees.
IBM representative Heather Saunders, who works on quantum systems scaling, provided an overview of quantum computing, a technology that uses quantum mechanical phenomena to solve problems that classical supercomputers cannot. A study by the Boston Consulting Group estimated that quantum computing technology has the potential to create over $500B in economic value across a wide array of sectors. “We’ve been here for over 80 years of innovation and we really want quantum to be that next step,” Saunders said. Saunders also shared renderings of the Starling system, which will be manufactured on-site. The building is designed with a 40-foot maximum height and will be partially excavated below grade to achieve the necessary interior clearance for the equipment without exceeding the town’s height limits.
Read more at Mid-Hudson News
Trade Wars
China’s Economy Grows At 5% In First Quarter, Industrial Output Up 5.7%
China’s economy accelerated in the first quarter of this year, expanding 5% from a year earlier as it largely shrugged off impacts from the Iran war so far, according to data released Thursday. The January-March data released by the government, covering a period during which the Iran war began, was better than what economists expected and was up from the 4.5% growth seen in the October-December quarter. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, China’s economy grew 1.3% in the first three months from the final quarter of last year, the fastest pace in a year.
Also on Thursday, government data showed industrial output in China rose 5.7% in March year-on-year, better than market expectations, as global demand for Chinese exports of electronic equipment, autos, semiconductors and robotics remained strong. Retail sales were up 1.7% from a year earlier, worse-than-estimates and slower than the 2.8% growth in January and February, reflecting sluggish domestic demand for consumer goods.
Read more at The AP
Pentagon Approaches Automakers, Manufacturers to Boost Weapons Production
The Trump administration wants automakers and other American manufacturers to play a larger role in weapons production, reminiscent of a practice used during World War II. Senior defense officials have held talks about producing weapons and other military supplies with the top executives of several companies. The Pentagon is interested in enlisting the companies to use their personnel and factory capacity to increase production of munitions and other equipment as the wars in Ukraine and Iran deplete stocks. The discussions are the latest effort by the administration to put military manufacturing on what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has called a “wartime footing.”
The talks were preliminary and wide-ranging, the people said. Defense officials said American manufacturers might be needed to backstop traditional defense companies and asked whether the companies could rapidly shift to defense work. GE Aerospace and the vehicle and machinery maker Oshkosh were among the companies involved in the talks with defense officials. The Defense Department “is committed to rapidly expanding the defense industrial base by leveraging all available commercial solutions and technologies to ensure our warfighters maintain a decisive advantage,” a Pentagon official said.
Read more at Reuters
ASML Lifts 2026 Forecast As Surging AI Chip Demand Boosts New Orders
ASML, the world's largest supplier of chipmaking tools, on Wednesday reported stronger-than-expected first-quarter earnings and lifted its 2026 revenue outlook as artificial intelligence boosts demand for its equipment. The stronger forecast underscores the rapid expansion of the global market for AI and a resulting data-centre boom that is straining supply chains and turbocharging chipmaker valuations.
The Netherlands-based firm, Europe's most valuable by market capitalisation, said 2026 revenue will now be between 36 billion and 40 billion euros ($42 billion-$47 billion), up from a previous forecast of 34 billion to 39 billion euros. Investors view ASML as a "picks-and-shovels" play on AI, as it supplies key equipment to chipmakers such as TSMC, which in turn produces processors for Nvidia and Apple. Other top ASML customers include memory chip makers Samsung and SK Hynix of South Korea, and Micron and Intel of the U.S.
Read more at Yahoo Finance
L3Harris Technologies Plans $1.3B Solid Rocket Motor Expansion In Virginia
Defense contractor L3Harris Technologies is spending $1.3 billion to increase its solid rocket motor manufacturing capacity at its operations in Orange County, Virginia, Gov. Abigail Spanberger announced Wednesday. The company’s plans include establishing an advanced propulsion campus, which will provide mixing, grinding, casting and final assembly support for SRM production under multiple Department of Defense programs, according to L3Harris’ press release.
L3Harris’ announcement builds on the SRM manufacturer’s $41.2 million expansion plans from April 2024. The company broke ground on five SRM facilities that will be robotically enabled and include a casting and assembly center. The advanced propulsion facilities will be under L3Harris’ new missile solutions business, which the company launched in January as part of an agreement with DOD. L3Harris aims to seek an initial public offering for the new business in the second half of 2026. DOD pledged to back the new entity with $1 billion, which would be converted into stock once the missile solutions enterprise goes public.
Read more at Manufacturing Dive
US Steel To Restart Gary Tin Mill Production
U.S. Steel on Thursday said it will restart tin mill production next year at its Gary, Indiana, complex to serve growing demand for domestic materials. The company plans to spend between $15 million and $20 million to resume Gary Tin Mill operations by early 2027. Tin production has been idled there since late 2022. The move will support 225 jobs at Gary Works, which also does steel and iron production, as well as pay for costs related to equipment inspections, maintenance and materials necessary for production.
U.S. Steel said the planned restart requires “sustained customer interest” in securing long-term domestic tin mill supplies, and it believes it can increase production to meet that demand when market conditions “allow for fair competition.” The company plans to wait until early 2027 to resume production to better align with the annual contracting cycle for tin mill products, such as electrolytic tinplate used in food and aerosol cans.
Read more at Manufacturing Dive
UAW Signals Alabama Mercedes-Benz Plant May Be Next In Push To Unionize
With the ratification of a four-year contract, 3,200 workers at Volkswagen of America’s plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee are card-carrying UAW members. And now, the union expects to use this long-fought victory as a springboard to bolster recruitment efforts among the 25,000 non-union auto workers in the United States. In February, UAW president Shawn Fain told delegates at the union’s annual political conference in Washington D.C. that the end of the nearly two years of negotiations with VW provides momentum to the union’s efforts to organize other workers, particularly in the South.
In May of 2024, just a month after VW workers voted to join the UAW, the union lost an organizing vote at the Mercedes-Benz Alabama plant. But the UAW has not given up in Tuscaloosa or the momentum from VW workers’ unionization, and under U.S. labor law it can soon try again this spring after the required two-year hiatus. Mercedes-Benz U.S. International (MBUSI) says that the Alabama facilities, which assemble the GLE and GLS gasoline SUV families as well as the EQS and EQE electric SUV families, employ approximately 6,100. On March 31, Mercedes-Benz announced intended investments of more than $7 billion into U.S. operations by 2030, of which the Tuscaloosa plant will get about $4 billion.
Read more at Ward’s Auto
Groton CT. Is Trying to Reclaim Its Title as ‘Submarine Capital of the World’
Thirty-five years ago, the end of the Cold War drained this hardscrabble coastal manufacturing town of its chief purpose: building America’s submarines. Now the Navy needs the shipyard along the Thames River to rev its engines back into high gear. The military’s orders have left Groton with a high-stakes challenge: how to resurrect a bygone era of military might in a far-flung seaside town short on workers, homes and transit. Officials in New London County, concerned about the area’s housing and labor shortage, have increased programs that train adults and high-schoolers alike for the trade, while studying how the region can accelerate the construction of new homes.
In its race against China’s advances in maritime technology, the Defense Department is focused on upgrading its nuclear-submarine fleet, and it is the job of Groton-based manufacturer General Dynamics Electric Boat and a slew of local suppliers to keep up. After a string of delays, the Navy recently added $16 billion in funding for Electric Boat to continue work on new submarines, stressing that timely construction is its top priority. Electric Boat President Mark Rayha needs a workforce to match that demand. He told employees in a February memo that the contractor wanted to hire 8,000 workers by the year’s end in Connecticut and another plant in Quonset Point, R.I.
Read More at the WSJ
Prep Work Underway In SC’s Nuclear Reboot Effort With Potential $2.7B Investment
South Carolina’s state-owned utility company hopes to know by the first half of 2028 whether a $2.7 billion deal to revive the state’s failed nuclear expansion will officially go through. Santee Cooper reached an initial agreement in December with New York investment firm Brookfield Asset Management for the purchase of two partially built nuclear reactors at the V.C. Summer nuclear plant in Fairfield County. The utilities abandoned the plant’s expansion in 2017, but not before jointly spending $9 billion on the reactors that never produced a single megawatt.
But the ultimate date of the payment, which Santee Cooper plans to use to remove reactor-related debt from customers’ power bills, remains contingent on Brookfield finalizing its investment decision. Under the negotiated terms, Santee Cooper will maintain an ownership interest in the reactors of up to 25%. This would give customers access to the power the reactors would produce if completed. Today, about 30 workers from Westinghouse, the original designer of the reactors, are on site doing research and prep work. Brookfield bought Westinghouse after the V.C. Summer failure sent it spiraling into bankruptcy.
Read more at South Carolina Daily Gazette
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