Texas has won a bid to take over Samsung’s new $ 17 billion chip plant from Reuters

By Joyce Lee and Tina Bellon

SEUL / AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics (OTC 🙂 Co Ltd said on Wednesday it had chosen Taylor, Texas as the location for a new $ 17 billion plant in Texas, to make advanced 5G chips for high-performance features. computer science and artificial intelligence.

The plant would create 2,000 high-tech jobs as construction begins in the first half of next year and production will begin in the second half of 2024, the South Korean technology giant said. It would also create at least 6,500 construction jobs, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said.

The world’s largest memory chip manufacturer and contracted second-largest chip maker also considered sites in Arizona and New York for the plant, which will be much larger than the only other U.S. chip factory in Austin, Texas.

The company said it chose Texas based on factors such as infrastructure stability, government support and proximity to an existing plant.

Samsung (KS 🙂 is teaming up with rivals TSMC and Intel (NASDAQ 🙂 in a race to expand chip contract manufacturing in the United States, where the sector is seen as an area of ​​strategic competition with China.

US President Joe Biden’s administration promises millions of dollars https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-jobs-plan-includes-50-bln-chips-research-manufacturing-2021-04-12 chip manufacturing in federal funding and to encourage research to ensure that it has an advantage over advanced technologies over China and to address the shortage of critical industries such as the automotive industry.

“Securing America’s supply chains is a top priority for President Biden and his administration,” said Brian Deese, director of the U.S. National Economic Council, and Jake Sullivan, a national security adviser, in a statement welcoming Samsung’s investment.

“We will continue to use all tools and continue to seek all avenues to invest in our sources of strength, such as manufacturing and technology.”

Abbott, accompanied by Samsung Electronics vice president Kinam Kim and Texas senator John Cornyn at the side of a press conference, said the company’s decision is a testament to Texas ’economic environment built on low taxes, fair regulations and strong infrastructure.

Texas suffered several days of widespread power outages last winter and caused damage of about 300-400 billion won ($ 254-339 million) to Samsung’s chip plant in Austin, Texas.

“I am very confident that the power grid is stable, resilient and reliable,” Abbott said Tuesday when asked about the power plant’s power supply.

The new site in Williamson County, Texas, which forms the city of Taylor, offered the best incentive package https://www.reuters.com/technology/samsung-decision-new-us-chip-plant-location-imminent-texas- county-judge-2021- 09-10 One of the sites Samsung was examining, sources told Reuters earlier.

NATIONAL SECURITY

Senator Cornyn on Tuesday called on the Biden administration to invest more money in attracting chip manufacturers to the U.S., calling it “essential to national security.”

“If China continues to shake up, the majority of the world could be in its hands when it comes to the supply of critical semiconductors,” Cornyn said.

Samsung’s Kim thanked the Biden administration for “working to expand the manufacturing of state-of-the-art semiconductors in the U.S. by creating an environment that supports companies like Samsung.”

“We also thank the administration and Congress for their bilateral support in the rapid implementation of federal incentives for home chip production and innovation.”

Samsung has not specified what the new plant will do beyond the advanced logic chips that can be used to power mobile devices and autonomous vehicles.

Analysts said it would likely make flagship chips of 5 nanometers or less, using machines made by Dutch ASML, for large customers like Qualcomm (NASDAQ :). These chips can handle more data per field than Samsung’s US plant in Austin, especially 14- and 28-nanometer chips.

The Taylor site, about 25 miles (40 km) from Austin, is more than 5 million square feet, Samsung said.

Samsung Electronics Vice President Jay Y. Lee https://www.reuters.com/business/samsungs-lee-visits-us-ahead-likely-17-bln-chip-plant-decision-media-2021-11-15 White officials and business leaders including Alphabet (NASDAQ 🙂 Google, Amazon (NASDAQ 🙂 and Microsoft (NASDAQ 🙂 on a trip to the United States last week.