SEOUL, July 16 (Yonhap) — Samsung Electronics Co. is looking at a site in Texas for its new chip factory in the United States, along with other potential locations in Arizona and others, industry sources said Friday, as the South Korean tech giant seeks to bolster its leadership.
A Samsung official said a location in Williamson County in Texas is also being considered as a possible venue for the company’s new chip fabrication factory in addition to other sites in the U.S., such as Arizona, New York, and Austin, Texas.
Earlier, Reuters reported that Samsung has applied for tax incentives to potentially build its foundry facility in Williamson County and officials there are considering setting the taxable value of the chipmaker’s plant at US$80 million for 10 years.
Citing the documents filed to Texas officials, Reuters added that Samsung plans to start the construction of the new plant during the first quarter of 2022, with production expected to begin by end-2024 should it confirm the investment plan.
A Samsung official said the company’s negotiations with local U.S. governments are still under way, adding that it is carefully reviewing candidate sites.
In May, Samsung announced that it will spend $17 billion to build a new chip fab in the U.S., but it has yet to reveal the location of the new plant.
Early this year, it was reported that Samsung had sought for tax breaks from Travis County, Austin, where the company already runs a chip plant.
Samsung’s Austin plant, also known as Line S2, manufactures products like radio frequency integrated circuits (RFIC), display driver integrated (DDI) circuits, solid state drive controllers, image sensors and other microprocessors using nodes from 14 nanometers to 65 nanometers.
Samsung is the world’s second-largest foundry firm behind Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. It aims to become the world’s No. 1 player in the logic chip and foundry sectors by 2030.
