Copters to cars: Micron’s $3 billion expansion makes Manassas a leader in autonomous vehicles

MANASSAS — Micron on Wednesday announced a major expansion at its Manassas production facility.

The silicon chip maker will invest $3 billion over the next 10 years in developing technology for driverless cars. The announcement comes as automakers are looking to increase the capacity of the memory inside the cars and trucks, at the dawn of the automated vehicle era.

“Products made here are found in two of every 3 automobiles built every day,” said Micron President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra

The Micron campus on Godwin Drive in Manassas will not only expand as part of the announcement, a total of 1,100 new jobs will be created at the Micron plant.

Overall, the expansion is slated to increase by $1 billion annually exports to the world from Virginia. That, Governor Ralph S. Northam said, will help make Virginia attain once more the ranking of “best state” in which to do business.

The governor, who arrived Wednesday by helicopter, said he’s working create more economic opportunity and access to jobs in all corners of the state.

“The jobs of the 21st century look a lot different when I was younger,” said Northam.

His administration remains focused on landing STEAM-H jobs — science, technology, engineering, arts, math, and healthcare.

Wednesday’s announcement comes on the heels of a similar one made last month by Aurora Flight Sciences. The company that is now apart of Boeing and focuses on developing unnamed flight vehicles, said it would expand and bring 135 additional jobs to the city.

With cars and helicopters, both Micron and Aurora, respectively, aim to be leaders in the autonomous travel.

The expanded facility at Micron will include new lab and testing faculties. It’ll be a new home for hordes of new engineers and their equipment.

The expanded facility is expected to take 18 months to build and should be open by 2020. Northam said the company shopped for locations around the world, but ultimately chose to expand its Manassas facility it opened in 2002.

Micron will also give an additional $1 million to Virginia’s universities and community colleges to fund science and technology training to, as Mehrotra put it, “develop the next generation of scientists.”