Samsung is considering building eleven new chip factories in the US
Samsung is considering building eleven new chip factories in the US over the next two decades. According to local media, this is apparent from applications submitted by Samsung. It would involve a total investment of USD 192.1 billion.
The applications have been submitted to the US state of Texas, writes the Austin-American Statesman. The documents show that Samsung is considering building factories in various parts of that state. The company is asking for tax benefits, among other things. If the proposals are approved, the company could receive a total of $4.8 billion in tax breaks.
Of the eleven possible factories, nine would be located in Taylor, a small town with about 17,000 inhabitants about 40 kilometers northeast of the Texan capital Austin. Samsung would allocate almost 168 billion dollars for this. The other two possible factories are being built in Austin, where Samsung wants to invest $ 24.5 billion. The eleven factories provide a total of at least 10,000 direct jobs, the South Korean chipmaker claims.
These expansion plans from Samsung mainly focus on the long term. If the plans go ahead, the first factories would not be operational until 2034 at the earliest. Two factories will not produce their first chips until 2042, according to the documents. Samsung also emphasizes in a statement that the requests do not mean that there are already concrete plans to build the factories. “We have no concrete plans to build at this time, but the applications are part of Samsung’s long-term planning process to evaluate the viability of possible construction of additional chip factories in the U.S.,” a company spokesperson said in a statement to local media.
Samsung has been expanding its production capacity for some time, including in the United States. The company is already building a chip factory in Taylor. The company says it will produce chips there for various purposes, such as the mobile sector, 5G, high-performance computing and AI. That factory will cover approximately 5 million square meters and should be operational in 2024. The considerations may have to do with the US CHIPS law, which must release $ 50 billion in subsidies for the semiconductor sector.