GE Global Research To Become 3 Independent Research Centers Located in Niskayuna, Bangalore, GE Reveals

Sep. 13—NISKAYUNA — When General Electric announced in November plans to split into three individual companies, a major question was what would become of the GE Global Research lab in Niskayuna.

On Tuesday, company officials told employees and then the public that operations will remain intact in Niskayuna. In an internal announcement Tuesday morning followed by LinkedIn posts in the afternoon, GE leaders revealed plans to eventually house three separate research centers on campuses that currently exist in Niskayuna and Bangalore, India. No jobs are being moved or cut, said Vic Abate, senior vice president and chief technology officer for GE, who leads GE Research.

"The actual head count in both won't change at all," Abate said during a phone call with The Daily Gazette Tuesday. "You snap the line, we're just going to align those teams into those three businesses."

Employees will eventually be paid directly by the company into which their work fits. The rollout will coincide with the spinoffs of the three new companies, Abate said. GE HealthCare is expected to spin from GE in January of next year and GE Vernova — the planned energy company — will spin off about a year later, leaving GE Aerospace as the third independent, publicly traded company. All three companies will have research centers in Niskayuna and in Bangalore.

Currently, about 1,200 workers — with positions ranging from union electricians to researchers — are based at the Niskayuna facility, Abate said. GE Research has about 200 employees in Bangalore, Abate said. About 80% of GE Research employees have PhDs, according to the GE Research leader.

Employees will be sorted into the new companies based on the type of work they do. For instance, an employee working on carbon-capture technology would become a GE Vernova employee and an employee helping to create a new jet engine with sustainable aviation fuel would become part of the new GE Aviation, Abate said.

Employees will be able to have conversations about their company assignments, but Abate anticipates the sorting to go smoothly.

"Every researcher, every employee has a place to land," Abate said.

Public officials in Schenectady County were pleased with Tuesday's news.

"We welcome today's announcement that all three GE businesses will continue to base their global research activities in Niskayuna," said Niskayuna Town Supervisor Jaime Puccioni. "This is outstanding news for our community and sends a clear message that Niskayuna will continue to be a world leader in innovation."

Tony Jasenski, chair of the Schenectady County Legislature, added: "We truly appreciate the welcome news that GE Aerospace, GE HealthCare and GE Vernova will stay and grow their research and development work at the Niskayuna campus. This is verification of the cutting-edge work done at the Niskayuna site by some of the world's best scientists, engineers and technical staff."

While employees will still enter the Niskayuna campus at the same location and will eat lunch together in the cafeteria and share other communal spaces, they will only be given access to their own company's private space, Abate said. Different colored badges will designate an employee's company.

"It's almost like various colleges on the campus commingling, but with dedicated missions and with clear ownership of their labs and their programs," Abate said.

GE Global Research has $450 million in federal research grant contracts to support its innovative work, which ranges from hypersonic vehicles to bioelectric medicine, Abate said. In August, U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change, and U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pennsylvania, who chairs the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science, visited the 525-acre property at 1 Research Circle to celebrate the Inflation Reduction Act, with its hundreds of billions of dollars to fight climate change.

There are no immediate plans to change the footprint of the Niskayuna facility following Tuesday's announcement, Abate said.

Creating three separate research centers housed in the two campuses means all three new GE companies will have access to the work currently done by GE Research, GE CEO Larry Culp said in a statement posted to LinkedIn.

"It is because of our reverence for GE Research's work and our business' commitment to innovation that we have taken time to think carefully about the future structure for advanced research. Innovation must be at the strategic forefront for our three industry-leading companies," Culp wrote. "Separate research centers will enable industry focus, speed and accountability to meet industry specific missions. GRC researchers will have the opportunity to work at one of those centers and each center will have employees located on the existing Niskayuna and Bangalore campuses where they can continue to cross-collaborate on cutting-edge research and developments."

In November 2021, GE announced a historic split that would divide the conglomerate into three companies: one focused on aerospace, another on healthcare and a third on energy.

When the split was announced, the manufacturer, which opened its doors in Schenectady in 1892 in the days of Thomas Edison, had already been ridding itself of some of the products for which it was most well known, including appliances and light bulbs, the Associated Press reported in November 2021.

But the breakup marked the apogee of those efforts, divvying up an empire created in the 1980s under Jack Welch, one of America's first CEO "superstars," according to the AP.

GE's stock became one of the most sought after on Wall Street under Welch, routinely outperforming peers and the broader market. Through the 1990s, it returned 1,120.6% on investments. GE's revenue grew nearly fivefold during Welch's tenure, and the company's value increased 30-fold, the AP reported.

Yet the stock began to lag in the summer of 2001, the waning days of Welch's rule. As the decade came to a close, GE was struck by near ruin with the arrival of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. General Electric's vulnerabilities were laid bare and the epicenter was GE Capital, the company's financial wing, the AP reported.

Its shares lost 80% of their value from the start of 2008 into the first few months of 2009 and has only recently begun to recover as the company unwinds much of what Welch built, according to the AP.

The stock has been on a downward trend since the November 2021 announcement of the split, when shares sold at more than $111. Year to date, the stock is down more than a quarter from its January highs of more than $103 a share. The stock closed trading at less than $71 a share Tuesday.

As the new companies spin off, stock will be sold for each individual company, with GE HealthCare trading on the NASDAQ and GE Vernova and GE Aerospace trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Abate said.

Andrew Waite can be reached at [email protected] and at 518-417-9338. Follow him on Twitter @UpstateWaite.

By the Numbers

2 — GE Research will house research centers on two campuses that currently exist in Niskayuna and Bangalore, India

3 — GE Research centers planned for each campus

1,200 — workers at Niskayuna's GE Global Research lab

$450 million — GE Global Research's current allotment toward federal research grant contracts

0 — jobs displaced or cut, according to GE

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