I swear it seems like every other week, a new corporation announces a huge project in the state of Texas. Today’s entry: Samsung, the Korean technology behemoth, announced plans to develop a $17 billion advanced chipmaking facility in Taylor, Texas, roughly 30 miles north of Austin.
It’s a major thing, both in terms of monetary value and symbolic significance. Isn’t it possible that you’ve heard there’s a chip shortage happening? In order to avoid another conflict, the United States is putting everything on the line to rebuild its chip industry on American soil.
This is due to the fact that a thriving chip industry is more than just a “good to have.” It is now considered a matter of national security that the United States produces its own chips, given the important role that chips play in everything from automobiles to cellphones.
However, at the moment, the United States’ chip supply is as insecure as a person looking through Instagram.
1990 saw the United States responsible for 37% of all semiconductor manufacturing. After losing market share to Asian countries such as Taiwan and China, the country’s share of the market dropped to 12 percent last year.
It’s a good thing Austin is here.
Tech businesses have come on Texas’s capital, attracted by low taxes and a well-educated population, much like a bunch of 26-year-old Lehigh graduates on Pat’s bachelor party weekend in the Hamptons.
Tesla is constructing a $1.1 billion factory in the area, and the company’s headquarters will be relocated from Silicon Valley to Austin.
Oracle made the significant transition from CA to ATX.
Facebook, Apple, Google, and Amazon have all made significant investments in the Central Texas region.
Taylor makes sense for Samsung because the firm already has a semiconductor manufacturing facility near Austin. A significant contribution was also made by a slew of tax benefits (equivalent to property tax discounts of up to 92.5 percent for the first 10 years, according to the Wall Street Journal).
Taking the big picture into consideration, a chip plant may be coming to a city near you as more manufacturing heft is required to support digital technology in general. Over the next five years, chipmakers Samsung, TSMC, and Intel will invest a combined total of at least $100 billion in semiconductor manufacturing facilities.