TAYLOR, TX—Samsung will spend $17 billion over the next three years to build a semiconductor fab here in an effort to expand its manufacturing capacity in the U.S. at a time of a global shortage of chips.
Located near Austin, TX, the new fab will manufacture logic chips based on “advanced process technologies” used in areas such as mobile phones, 5G networks, data centers, and artificial intelligence.
The announcement comes as the U.S. government makes reviving domestic chip-making a major priority during a shortage that has lasted for nearly a year. Snarled chip supply chains have ravaged industries ranging from cars to consumer devices, causing delays in shipping products and higher prices that have hit consumers. The imbalance has underlined how indispensable chips are to the U.S. economy.
The plant’s construction is scheduled to start in the first half of 2022, while mass production is set to begin in late 2024, so it will not help solve the problems delaying the production of cars and consumer devices.
The world’s top memory chip vendor, Samsung is one of the world’s top contract chip foundries, making chips based on blueprints designed by firms such as Qualcomm and Nvidia. The company has previously said that it would start rolling out chips based on its 3-nanometer node by 2022 before upgrading to its 2-nanometer node by 2025.
The new plant, which will span more than 15 million square feet, will complement Samsung’s only other American fab, which is located in Austin and predominately rolls out chips based on less advanced nodes.
The investment reflects how much advanced chips cost to produce. Samsung said the price tag includes the cost of building the clean room—necessary to protect against impurities in chips—and making property improvements. The price tag also covers purchases of the high-end machinery and equipment to go inside.