Samsung to build a $17 billion chip manufacturing plant in Texas
It was reported last month that Samsung is looking to set up a $10 billion chip manufacturing facility in Austin, Texas, in the US. It is now being reported that the company might invest a lot more than it was initially reported. According to the documents filed by Samsung Foundry in Arizona, New York, and Texas, the upcoming chip plant is expected to cost over $17 billion.
Samsung’s potential chip manufacturing facility in Austin, Texas, will reportedly create around 1,800 jobs. If everything goes according to the plant, the upcoming chip facility will go online in the fourth quarter of 2023. While the company hasn’t revealed which fabrication process the new plant would be designed for, it is possible that the company could make 3nm (MBCFET) chips there.
The company only makes chips based on leading processes such as 7nm and 5nm in South Korea. Its existing S2 line in Texas makes 14nm and 11nm chips, which are not modern. However, Samsung Foundry has enough customers in the US, including IBM, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Tesla, which means it could set up a dedicated fab in the country for those clients. As most consumer electronics products and automobiles are becoming smarter, the demand for advanced logic chips has spiked over the past few years.
Samsung’s current plan that was submitted to the government of Texas includes a 7 million square feet chip plant on the company’s 640-acre site. The new fabrication facility will be adjacent to Samsung’s existing S2 plant, which means the company has no plans to upgrade the S2 plant to more recent processes in the near future. In comparison, TSMC’s upcoming plant in Arizona will be relatively smaller.
The company expects the new chip plant to have an economic output of around $8.64 billion and salaries of around $7.32 billion to permanent employees during the first 20 years of its operation. According to Reuters, Samsung Foundry is seeking a combined tax subsidy of $805.5 million over the next 20 years from the city of Austin and Travis County.
