After a year of searching for the right place of its new U.S. fab, Samsung this week announced that it would build a fab near Taylor, Texas. The company will invest $17 billion in the new semiconductor fabrication plant and will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives from local and state authorities. Separately, Texas authorities have announced that Texas Instruments intend to spend $30 billion on new fabs in the state, as well.

Samsung to Spend $17 Billion on New Texas Fab

Samsung yet has to disclose all the details about its fab near Taylor, Texas, but for now the company says that the new fab site will occupy an area of over 5 million square meters and will employ 2,000 workers directly and another 7,000 indirectly. To put the number into context, Samsung's fab near Austin, Texas currently employs about 10,000 of workers. 

Samsung will start construction of the new fab in the first half of 2022 and expects it to be operational in the second half of 2024. It usually takes about a year to construct a building for a semiconductor manufacturing facility and then about a year to install and set up all the necessary equipment.

Samsung has not announced which process technologies will be used at its fab near Taylor, Texas, but says it will produce chips for 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC), and mobile applications, which implies that the fab will gain fairly advanced technologies. In fact, keeping in mind that all of Samsung's nodes thinner than 7 nm rely on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, it is reasonable to expect the new fab to be EUV capable. As a result, Samsung's customers from the U.S. (such as IBM, Nvidia, and Qualcomm) will be able to produce their chips in the U.S. rather than in South Korea, which might allow their developers to address systems used by the U.S. government. 

"With greater manufacturing capacity, we will be able to better serve the needs of our customers and contribute to the stability of the global semiconductor supply chain," said Kinam Kim, Vice Chairman and CEO, Samsung Electronics Device Solutions Division. "In addition to our partners in Texas, we are grateful to the Biden Administration for creating an environment that supports companies like Samsung as we work to expand leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. We also thank the administration and Congress for their bipartisan support to swiftly enact federal incentives for domestic chip production and innovation."

Samsung's new semiconductor production plant will be located 25 kilometers away from the company's fab near Austin, Texas, so the facilities will be able to share infrastructure and resources (such as materials and supplies).

Samsung says that it will spend about $6 billion on construction on the building as well as improvements of the local infrastructure. Tools that will be used by the fab will cost another $11 billion. Meanwhile, to build the new plant Samsung will receive hundreds of millions in incentives from the state, the county, and the city, according to media reports. Some of the packages have not been approved yet. 

Texas Instruments to Invest $30 Billion on New U.S. Fabs

Samsung is not the only company to build new fabs in Texas. The Governor of Texas recently announced the Texas Instruments was planning to build several new 300-mm fabs near Sherman. In total, TI intends to build as many as four wafer fabrication facilities in the region over coming decades and the cumulative investments are expected to total $30 billion as fabs will be eventually upgraded.

Texas Instruments itself yet have to formally announce its investments plans, but the announcement by the governor Greg Abbot indicates that the principal decisions have been made and now TI needs to finalize the details. 

Sources: SamsungAustin American-StatesmanTexas.gov

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  • MamiyaOtaru - Friday, November 26, 2021 - link

    and yes, there is a Colorado River in Austin (news to me actually). It's not the one that flows through the Grand Canyon, aka not the one under severe pressure with drying up reservoirs and which doesn't even reach the ocean. The one in Texas is subject to drought conditions from time to time but I'm not really confident you were talking about that one
  • waltsmith049 - Wednesday, November 24, 2021 - link

    I can explain it. Texas is larger than most countries. Hurricanes and humidity are only in the coastal areas. West Texas doesn't have the population or infrastructure to support a fab of this type. Central Texas on the other hand....fairly ideal, especially with the tax and workforce support. No riots, and other political things of this nature play a factor in decisions today as well.
  • mode_13h - Friday, November 26, 2021 - link

    (a short reply about "riots" was deleted.)
  • FunBunny2 - Friday, November 26, 2021 - link

    (a short reply about "riots" was deleted.)

    all you need to know about this outfit.
  • Alistair - Wednesday, November 24, 2021 - link

    The company is called "Texas Instruments" for goodness sake. They are not moving there. Texas is the largest state in continental US (second to Alaska which doesn't count for manufacturing for obvious reasons).
  • rayhapes - Thursday, November 25, 2021 - link

    Well for one thing Texas is pretty big. Hurricanes don't get very far inland before they peter out. Also hmumidity is not a factor again becuse of the distance from the coast. No matter what happened this past winter Texas actually has a pretty good infrastructure.
    The reputation for hot climate is overblown it just depends on where in Texas you are. Sure it can be hot but then there are long periods of very mild springs falls and winter...nearly no snow.
    THere are no earth quakes or forest fires.
    Our road system is second only to California ( where all the quakes and forest fire are)
    Another factor is that space is cheap because after all...there is a lot of it in Texas.
    Housing is relatively inexpensive...its very easy to live in Texas for less than you need on either coast.
    Quality of life good.
    Good schools.
    Great Mexican food.
    Enegy is cheap and abundant.
    Great location. You are 3 hrs or less flying time to anywhere in the country.
    In spite of what the rest of the county thinks Texas is not full of illiterate farm hands and cowboys. There is a huge pool of relatively well eductaed folks. In fact Taylor, the site mentioned above, is in the same central Texas region as Austin . That entire central Texas reigion has become a really significant area of tech incubation. There are super important consortiums of private enterprise , state and local goverments and Higher education fostering tech development.
    So you see if you do an actual comparative analysis of other location Texas comes out pretty good.
  • ahtoh - Friday, November 26, 2021 - link

    > Great Mexican food
    sounds as oxymoron
  • MamiyaOtaru - Friday, November 26, 2021 - link

    where the hell are you from to think that
  • mode_13h - Saturday, November 27, 2021 - link

    Somewhere without great Mexican food, obviously.
  • AshlayW - Saturday, November 27, 2021 - link

    @mode_13h, pretty much yup

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