Microchip plans $880 million expansion, 400 new jobs at Colorado Springs facility

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- In the city's third major economic announcement over the past two months, a local computer-related manufacturer revealed plans Friday to expand its operations producing silicon and silicon carbide components.

Microchip Technology, Inc., has had a presence in Colorado Springs for 34 years but will now invest $880 million to expand its 50-acre site along Cheyenne Mountain Boulevard on the city's southwest side.

The expansion, to occur over the next several years, will also add 400 jobs and increase the total number of workers to 1,250.

In a release, Microchip explained that the expansion will provide "increased SiC manufacturing for use in automotive/E-Mobility, grid infrastructure, green energy, and aerospace and defense applications."

Microchip will receive $47 million in local and state incentives for the expansion.

"We estimate this will grow our local economy by approximately $1.4 billion over the next 10 years," Mayor John Suthers said during the announcement at the new Train Wreck sports bar, just southwest of downtown.

According to the release, Microchip "produces products from 6-inch wafers. The manufacturing technology that Microchip is installing will run on 8-inch wafers, which will significantly increase the number of chips produced at this location. The additional 400 jobs anticipated at the facility will range from production specialists to technical roles in equipment procurement and management, process control and test engineering."

Microchip is based in Phoenix, Ariz., and has offices around the world and two other manufacturing facilities in the U.S.; in Colorado Springs, it acquired the former Atmel location in 2016, and Honeywell occupied the site before that.

Microchip's announcement follows similar expansions revealed in December by Entegris, a semiconductor manufacturer adding 600 jobs -- and Zivaro, a defense industry IT firm that plans to add 300 jobs.