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CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University is on track to break ground in December on the $213 million Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Collaborative Innovation Complex, following final legislative approval Sunday of $72 million in state bonding from an Oregon Legislature eager to enlarge the state’s semiconductor footprint.

Oregon lawmakers approved bonding for the 150,000-square foot complex, which will have a state-of-the-art clean room and other specialized facilities to bolster OSU’s research innovation related to the semiconductor industry.

The complex to be built on OSU’s Corvallis campus will also harness one of the nation’s most powerful supercomputers and serve as a home for team-based research in artificial intelligence, materials science and robotics to solve global challenges in areas such as climate science, oceanography, sustainability and water resources.

The commitment from the Legislature provides additional momentum to OSU’s ongoing efforts to advance research and workforce development in the semiconductor sector, said Jayathi Murthy, Oregon State’s president.

The Legislature also approved $10 million for OSU and Oregon’s other public universities to use as matching funds when competing for federal grant awards. In total, lawmakers steered more than $500 million toward Oregon’s semiconductor industry in the form of grants, loans and tax credits with an eye toward capturing some of the $52 billion in CHIPS Act money the federal government started allocating this spring.

“We greatly appreciate the support provided by state leaders and legislators. Oregon State University is deeply engaged in work to grow the university’s already significant research contributions to business and industry, economic development and the workforce,” Murthy said. “These talented individuals will transform not only the semiconductor sector in Oregon, but many other industries – including manufacturing, food and beverage, agriculture, forestry, the business sector – all of which are becoming increasingly technological.”

Oregon State announced plans for the complex, named for NVIDIA founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang and his wife, Lori Huang, in October following a $50 million gift to the OSU Foundation from the Huangs, who are both Oregon State graduates.

The three-story, 150,000 square-foot complex will house a supercomputer to support faculty and students in addressing highly complex and challenging computational problems. The supercomputer – powered by next-generation NVIDIA CPUs, GPUs and networking – is expected to be among the world’s fastest university supercomputers, powerful enough to train the largest AI models and perform complex digital twin simulations.

Belinda Batten, senior advisor for strategic initiatives in the OSU provost's office and project lead for the complex, said that design development on the building is complete and that construction documents are being prepared.

The building, scheduled to open in 2026, will feature mass timber and electrochromic glass as part of the university’s goal to work toward net-zero carbon emissions, said Batten.

“This building will enable us to take our collaborative innovation and research to another level and will also help with workforce development,” she said.