ALBANY — General Electric, once one of the biggest employers in Utica, one of New York’s hardest-luck towns, is coming back.

Dolloping out another economic perk to a long-maligned upstate locale, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Thursday that G.E. would return to Utica for a high-tech project in a city where it once made low-tech radios.

The announcement of G.E.’s plans to package silicon carbide power blocks at the State University of New York Polytechnic Institute in Utica was just part of what the governor himself packaged as a “transformative moment” for the entire Mohawk Valley, west of the state capital. That moment included the unveiling of a promise of a more than $2 billion investment by an Austrian company, AMS, which manufactures sensors. The company pledged to generate more than 1,000 jobs at a new “wafer fabrication facility” it plans to build in the area.

But while the Austrian company was a larger investment, the news of the return of G.E. to Utica, once home to generations of G.E. employees, captured much of the attention, including high praise from the governor.