Reason for Biden’s Poughkeepsie Visit Revealed: Great News For HV

The real reason behind Joe Biden's visit to Poughkeepsie has been revealed, and it's earth-shattering news for the Hudson Valley.

It's not every day a president comes to town. In fact, the last seated president who set foot in the Mid Hudson Region was Bill Clinton who famously met with Boris Yelstin in a historic 1995 event in Hyde Park. The sax-playing president even made a return trip to Hyde Park in 2000.

On Thursday, Joe Biden will be visiting the IBM facility on Route 9 in Poughkeepsie. The event is expected to cause huge traffic jams and delays up and down Dutchess County. Road closures and early school dismissals are just some of the inconveniences we can expect from the presidential visit, but the real reason for Biden's appearance promises to be more than worth the hassle.

The real reason for Biden's visit

It has been revealed that Joe Biden isn't just visiting the Hudson Valley for a photo-op. The real reason he's decided to come to town is to unveil a game-changing investment in the Mid-Hudson region.

IBM and Biden will announce that 20 billion dollars (that's billion with a "b") will be invested in the Hudson Valley over the next 10 years. IBM's Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna will take Biden on a tour of the Poughkeepsie plant where IBM builds its state-of-the-art mainframe computers responsible for "powering the global economy.'

On Thursday, Krishna and Biden will announce that IBM is making a huge investment to transform the Poughkeepsie plant into the new global hub of quantum computing development. The Route 9 facility currently houses IBM's Quantum Computation Center which includes the fastest computer in the world. Poughkeepsie has become the top location for mainframe manufacturing, and now the facility is committed to also becoming the center of the quantum computing universe.

Thanks, Biden

This enormous windfall for the local economy is a direct result of Joe Biden's CHIPS and Science Act, aimed at advancing American innovation and manufacturing. To put this in perspective, the money invested in the Hudson Valley by IBM is equal to 40 LEGOLAND theme parks or 10,500 times the investment that was given to (and then taken back from) Dutchess Stadium. It's no wonder Biden is making the trip to Poughkeepsie to celebrate.