Wednesday November 24th 2021
Offensive against semiconductor shortages
Samsung builds another chip factory in the USA
The world’s largest memory chip manufacturer Samsung wants to increase its capacities in the USA. In the first half of 2022, another plant is to be built near his only chip factory in Texas to date. The billion dollar investment was announced in the midst of a global supply crisis.
Samsung Electronics is building a $ 17 billion chip factory in the city of Taylor, Texas. The South Korean technology giant announced last night. Construction is scheduled to start in the first half of 2022. The factory will create around 2,000 high-tech jobs. Several US cities, including New York, competed for the bid.
So far, the world’s largest memory chip manufacturer and the world’s second largest chip contract manufacturer has only operated one factory in the USA: in Austin. It is significantly smaller than the five square kilometer plant that is now planned. So far, the South Koreans have not communicated what exactly they want to manufacture in Taylor. All that is known is that these will be chips for mobile devices and autonomous cars.
With the establishment of the factory in Taylor, Samsung joins rivals TSMC and Intel, which are also expanding their capacities in the USA. US President Joe Biden has promised billions in subsidies to stimulate chip production and research in the US and to prevent future delivery bottlenecks such as those currently in the auto industry and to compete with Asia. So far, the majority of modern semiconductors have been manufactured in Asia.
Relief for the semiconductor supply chain
The Samsung announcement came in the midst of a global chip shortage affecting various industries including the electrical industry and auto manufacturing. Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor vice chairman Kim Ki Nam said he expects the new factory to contribute to the stability of the global semiconductor supply chain. The company would like to thank the US government and Congress for their support in “quickly creating federal incentives for domestic chip production and innovation.”
The new facility will manufacture “products based on advanced process technology” for mobile applications, super-fast 5G radio data transmission, high-performance computing and artificial intelligence (AI), it said. It will occupy an area of more than five million square meters and, together with the production line in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, will serve as a key location for Samsung’s global semiconductor production.