A $100 Billion Chip Project Forced a 91-Year-Old Woman From Her Home

Azalia King has moved in an upstate New York home surrounded by vast cattle pastures around 1965, around the time mass production of the world’s first microchips began. Now, 60 years later, the 91-year-old is about to lose her home to make way for what could become the largest chip manufacturing complex in the United States.

Local officials have threatened to exercise their power of eminent domain, or take land for public benefit, to forcibly uproot King and proceed with construction of a $100 billion campus where U.S. tech giant Micron plans to make memory chips for a variety of electronic devices. King’s home is the only remaining residence on the 1,400-acre property, which previously included dozens of other homes.

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

“Both sides recognized that the time was right,” McMahon, who has been personally involved in the talks over the past few days, said during a live-streamed press conference last Friday. “This is all driven by a national security project that will change this community for generations to come. These things are difficult. Nobody wanted to be where we were.”

Scott Lickstein, King’s attorney, told WIRED that his lawsuit against county officials last week helped speed up negotiations and that it was beneficial for all parties to reach a deal. “She will stay in the community,” Lickstein said. Several close to King did not respond to requests for comment on the deal.

Micron said it plans to break ground in Clay, north of Syracuse, next month. But the company can’t move forward with the project until King leaves his home. It is already two to three years behind schedule, and full chip production is not expected until 2045.

The construction is part of a federal effort launched under the Biden administration to increase domestic production of computer chips and reduce the country’s dependence on Asian manufacturing. Federal, state and local grants for the project could total about $25 billion, according to activists fighting some tax breaks. “You can’t make a historic investment and keep this one house,” McMahon said last week. “These two things can’t happen together.”