Semiconductor Institute leader says hub won’t be in Jax, although UF says decision still being made

Semiconductor Institute leader says hub won’t be in Jax, although UF says decision still being made (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) — Jacksonville may receive a branch of the University of Florida’s Florida Semiconductor Institute, but the program’s main hub will be in Gainesville, the incoming head of the institute told the Business Journal.

When UF Board of Trustees Chairman Mori Hosseini (pictured above) said during a board meeting in March that the semiconductor institute “will be in Jacksonville” if it received community support, that was widely viewed as meaning the program would move here: A post on the UF Innovate site, for example, said “Jacksonville is the front-runner to become the future home” of the institute.

But Jacksonville will not house the institute, said David Arnold, a UF professor who is becoming director of the Florida Semiconductor Institute.

In a conversation with the Business Journal, Arnold sought to dispel the idea that the institute would be solely or mainly in Jacksonville.

“I don’t believe that there’s any intention that the Florida Semiconductor Institute entity will be in Jacksonville and not in Gainesville,” Arnold said. “I think the main hub of activity will remain here on (the) main campus, and the vision around Jacksonville is how can Jacksonville augment our programs and our efforts here.”

Thursday evening, following publication of this story earlier in the day, a university spokesperson reached out to stress that a final decision about the institute’s home had not been made.

“UF is continuing to explore all available options with regard to the Florida Semiconductor Institute,” said Steve Orlando, the university’s associate vice president of communications. “No decisions as to the location have been made. We are enthusiastic about this initiative and expect to make these decisions in the coming months.”

The idea of a satellite office in Jacksonville is a far cry from the expectations raised in the wake of Hosseini’s comments.

“Our semiconductor (institute), $80 million that we have received from the state, which we have lots of places (that) want us to take that to other cities,” Hosseini said during the meeting. “But so far, assuming we work everything out with the community and with the city, that we will be in Jacksonville.”

The “$80 million” comment references money Gov. Ron DeSantis asked the state legislature for to fund the institute, leading city leaders to tout the economic benefits that could accrue to the region.

“It would be a big deal for our workforce,” Mayor Donna Deegan said during a JaxUSA Partnership Luncheon in March after the meeting. “It would bring a great deal of money into the city — it would be $80 million of state funds, but also hundreds of millions from the CHIPS Act from the federal government that would help us to develop that. That along with the UF campus, I think is going to be a really, really big deal for downtown.”

The U.S. CHIPS and Science Act is a law signed by President Joe Biden that subsidizes semiconductor research with $13 billion and incentivizes domestic manufacturing with other subsidies.

While Gainesville will be the home of the institute, according to Arnold, it will look to reach across the state using a similar model to UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

That program has an office in every county in Florida to help farmers grow food and livestock.

“We want to have that same sort of model of infusing the opportunities and innovations from, we’ll call it the brain in Gainesville, but spread that out to the benefit of the entire state,” Arnold said.

The Florida Semiconductor Institute was established by UF’s Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering in October 2023, looking “to boost the state’s research and development within the sector as well as build and sustain Florida’s semiconductor workforce.”

As of now, the institute is housed in the recently constructed Malachowsky Hall for Data Science & Information Technology on the Gainesville campus. The $150 million building opened at the end of last year.

Whatever presence the institute has in Jacksonville likely will be tied in to the university’s plans to establish a graduate campus here.

In March, the Board of Governors for the State University System of Florida signed off on plans to establish that campus, initially renting temporary space at JEA headquarters on Pearl Street while building a permanent home, with a goal of enrolling 1,500 students in the next five years.

“I know that the College of Engineering is going to be offering some programs in engineering operations management, as well as AI and data science,” Arnold said. “Those fields are critical for the semiconductor industry.” 

Coordinating the amount of materials coming into semiconductor plants for manufacturing and moving chips out into products is a complex process, he said: Many raw materials are required for semiconductor productions such as wafers on which the chips are built, specialty gasses, tapes, glues and adhesives.

“The logistics management of that in terms of tracking, inventory, manifests, supply chain, making sure the materials are coming in and out on time,” he said. “That in itself is an entire field and specialty field.”

Details on any extension offices extending from the institute in Gainesville has not been settled, with Arnold saying university officials are looking at a number of different sites.

Most semiconductor production happening in the state is concentrated in Central Florida and other areas nearby, along the Interstate 4 corridor.

Along with the recommended $80 million for the Semiconductor Institute, the state has awarded a $28 million grant to several community colleges in the state — mainly in the Orlando area — as part of an effort to develop Florida’s semiconductor-related talent pipeline.