Va. panel OKs incentives for two manufacturing projects [Video]

A Virginia legislative panel unanimously approved state incentive packages on Thursday for two manufacturing projects, one in Manassas for semiconductor chips and the other in Lynchburg for lithium ion batteries.

The Major Employment Investment Project Review Commission, known as MEI, approved both packages after a closed-door presentation by state economic development officials, but provided no details about the incentives for the projects, which have not been formally announced.

But U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., one of the authors of the CHIPS and Science Act that Congress passed in 2022 with $52 billion to invest in domestic manufacturing of essential semiconductor chips, confirmed the projects in Manassas — where Micron Technology Inc. operates a plant that just expanded with state support — and Lynchburg, where he said Applied Materials Inc. plans a lithium ion battery manufacturing operation.