Samsung chip plant will be largest square-foot building in U.S.
A visit by a Central Texas trade delegation to South Korea could spark more local economic opportunities as technology and manufacturing businesses from Asia locate to Williamson County and its cities.
The news comes on the heels of the latest overseas trip by area elected and economic development officials, including Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell and Taylor Mayor Brandt Rydell.
“Things are moving pretty quickly,” Rydell said Friday in an interview with Taylor Press.
The delegation attended the Semicon trade show in in Seoul, held Jan. 31-Feb. 2, where they addressed attendees about doing business in the U.S., discussed economic development and met with more than 30 companies concerning opportunities in Williamson County.
Officials said the synergy is an outgrowth of the relationship between locals and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., which is building a $17 billion semiconductor fabrication plant in Taylor.
When completed, officials said it could well be the largest square-foot building in the U.S.
“In the days ahead, we will be making significant announcements not only from this dais, but from all our sister cities as well,” Gravell said earlier this week during a presentation to Commissioners Court about his trip to Asia with the Williamson County Economic Development Partnership.
Rydell said he does not know the timing on announcements from the county or other cities, but added there are a number of promising economic development possibilities for Taylor that could come to light this year.
“Samsung has essentially vetted Taylor (as a place to do business in America), so that naturally attracts a lot of interest not just from semiconductorrelated enterprises, but also other industries in Korea,” Rydell said.
While he doesn’t think there will be any major announcements for more Korean companies in Taylor before he leaves office in May, there are ongoing talks that could mean more good news before the end of the year.
According to Rydell, the companies looking at Williamson County and Taylor are “a mix, some directly related to Samsung’s presence here,” some from other industries and some related to the presence of a growing Korean business community in the city and surrounding communities.
“We were lucky to hit the grand slam of grand slams with Samsung,” Rydell said of the Taylor campus of Samsung Austin Semiconductor now under construction. “But we need to hit those singles and doubles, too, for long-term viability from an economic standpoint.”
Rydell announced one of those base hits at Thursday’s City Council meeting.
Hironic, a medical equipment manufacturer in the beauty-technology field, is considering making Taylor the site of its first U.S. manufacturing facility, he said.
“The beauty industry is huge in Korea, it’s one of the leading countries for that,” Rydell said, adding he was excited about Taylor’s chance to diversify into other manufacturing interests in addition to semiconductors. “That’s just one example and, like I said, there were 30 different companies we met with while we were over there. I think there will be some announcements coming here in the weeks and months to come countywide.”
Rydell and Gravell also met with Philip Goldberg, U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Korea, during their trip. Rydell said the ambassador told them Koreans value their relationship with Taylor.
“He said that in Korea, Taylor is right there with New York City and Los Angeles in terms of the public consciousness and the attention that the Korean business community and the Korean people have when they look over here,” Rydell said.
The mayor reported that while in Korea, Gravell signed a friendship agreement with the city of Yongin. According to online sources, Yongin is a major metropolis in the Seoul Capital Area with a population of more than 1 million people, which gives it the official name of Yongin Special City.
“Yongin has been designated by the Korean government as the next semiconductor hub in South Korea,” Rydell said, adding the city was set to become the largest semiconductor manufacturing complex in the world. “It was important for us to have that meeting and the judge to sign this agreement because there’s a lot that we can learn from each other as they become the largest in the world and Taylor and Williamson County look to be the largest in the U.S. in the coming years.”
Yongin is also home to the Hironic company.
Gravell also said a top Samsung Electronics executive assured members of the delegation the advanced semiconductor chip fabrication plant in Taylor is on schedule.
The county’s top official said he spoke with Samsung’s “worldwide” chief financial officer while in Korea. He did not name the executive, but Hark-Kyu Park is listed as president and CFO of Samsung Electronics.
The Taylor site plans to hire up to 1,800 full-time employees, including a large workforce skilled in technology fields.
While manufacturing will begin on schedule, there is about a two- to three-month process before an initial finished semiconductor chip leaves the factory, he said.
If the massive investment by Samsung in the Taylor facility wasn’t enough to bring attention to the city, it will soon break a record as home to the largest building in the United States by square footage.
As the buildout of Samsung “Fab 1” continues, pouring of concrete for the foundation for “Fab 2” has begun, Gravell said. The first phase is 5.4 million square feet and the second phase will top 6 million square feet.
“The structure in Taylor, between Fab 1 and Fab 2, will be 11.4 million square feet, which will be the largest single building in the United States of America,” Gravell said.
A Wikipedia list of the largest buildings in the world by square footage of floor space currently lists Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas automotive plant just a little more than 30 miles away as the current largest at 10 million square feet.
Taylor’s Samsung plant would become the seventh largest in the world by floor space and largest industrial building in the world.
