Samsung Austin Semiconductor’s Taylor site served as announcement grounds for what officials describe as a “new chapter” of the company’s journey.
The Biden administration and the United States Chamber of Commerce reached a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms to provide $6.4 billion in direct funding to Samsung as part of the federal CHIPS and Science Act.
Samsung officials, federal government representatives and Taylor leaders gathered for an announcement celebration Monday, April 15 at the semiconductor construction site.
“This project calls for incredible importance, since we are not just expanding production facilities,” said Kye Hyun Kyung, Samsung Semiconductor president and CEO. “We are strengthening the local semiconductor ecosystem and positioning the United States as a global semiconductor manufacturing destination.”
The CHIPS funding, along with an over $40 billion investment from Samsung, will help build an advanced packaging facility, a research and development center and a second fabrication plant in Taylor.
According to information provided by Williamson County, Samsung announced the total investment would be $45 billion in central Texas, primarily in Taylor.
“We’re not just building a fab,” said Gina Raimondo, United States secretary of commerce. “This is more than just building a factory to build chips. It’s so much more than that. This investment will quite literally transform central Texas. It’s going to support a comprehensive, diverse and leading-edge manufacturing ecosystem here in central Texas.”
Other speakers at the event included Jon Taylor, corporate vice president of fab engineering and public affairs for Samsung Austin Semiconductor, U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, and Arati Prabhakar, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who was an author of the CHIPS for America Act, sent in a video that was played on a monitor during the celebration.
“By investing in leading- edge semiconductor manufacturing, we are helping secure this vulnerable supply chain, boosting our national security and global competitiveness and creating new jobs for Texans,” Cornyn said in a statement.
According to a statement released by President Joe Biden, the agreement will create at least 21,500 jobs in central Texas.
Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell said the current construction on the Taylor plant is building two fabs, one that will make four-nanometer chips and another that will make two-nanometer chips. The judge said the two-nanometer chip is the most advanced chip in the world.
He said Monday’s announcement is focused on adding research and development, which he hinted as being “really far out there.”
In addition, Gravell said he was grateful for the news of an advanced packaging facility because it was an unexpected addition.
“It’s exciting that we are literally shaping the world from central Texas,” Gravell said. “It all starts here in Taylor, and that’s pretty amazing.”
Mayor Brandt Rydell described the deal as “gratifying.”
He said in the early days of talk with Samsung, Gravell and himself talked about how investing in the semiconductor wouldn’t just bring one fab to Taylor, but could turn into a bigger deal.
Knowing the potential growth of the plans was a motivator to win the deal, Rydell said.
“Now, to see the city transformed as the economy has evolved over time, it really has become a leader in the semiconductor industry and a high-tech hub at a global level,” Rydell said. “It’s something that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago.”
