Governor Greg Abbott announced that the world’s largest memory-chip maker is building a new facility in Central Texas. Samsung, which already has a presence in Austin, will be planting new roots about an hour’s drive northeast, in the small town of Taylor, which has a population of less than 17,000.
In a press release, Abbott stated that the new semiconductor plant, a $17 billion investment, will be Texas’ largest foreign direct investment on record. This will bring Samsung’s total investment in the state to more than $35 billion since 1996.
The new facility will manufacture “advanced logic chips that will power next-generation devices for applications such as mobile, 5G, high-performance computing (HPC), and artificial intelligence (AI). ”
The new plant is expected to produce approximately two-thousand jobs in the technical field, around 6,500 jobs in construction, and thousands of indirect job openings.
According to the Austin American-Statesman, one of the deciding factors for the company’s choice of location was the offer of taxpayer-funded incentives.
“Taken together, the amount of tax breaks and other incentives Samsung will receive from Taylor, Williamson County, the Taylor school district, and the state of Texas add up to about $680 million over the initial 10 years of the project,” reports the Statesman.
In addition, the 1,000-acre site offers plenty of room for growth if the company should ever decide to expand the facility.
Construction is expected to begin on the six-million-square-foot plant early next year and will be completed and operational sometime in 2024.
Kinam Kim, Vice Chairman of the South Korean-based Samsung Electronics company, stated: “We are also proud to be bringing more jobs and supporting the training and talent development for local communities, as Samsung celebrates 25 years of semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S.”
