Samsung to get $6 billion subsidy for Taylor facility
Administration seeks to ramp up chipmaking
The Biden administration plans to announce it is awarding between $6 billion and $7 billion to Samsung next week to expand its chip output in Taylor, northeast of Austin, as it seeks to ramp up chipmaking in the U.S., Reuters reported Monday.
Reuters cited two people familiar with the matter. The subsidy, which will be unveiled by Commerce Department Secretary Gina Raimondo, will go toward construction of four facilities in Taylor: one $17 billion chipmaking plant that Samsung announced in 2021, another factory, an advanced packaging facility and a research and development center, one of the sources said.
It will also include an investment in another undisclosed location, the source told Reuters, adding that Samsung will more than double its U.S. investment to $44 billion as part of the deal.
The American-Statesman previously reported that Central Texas is among a handful of regions expected to see a boost from the CHIPS and Science Act. Congress passed the law in 2022 to boost domestic semiconductor chip production with more than $52 billion in funding and tax credits for manufacturing, as well as research subsidies.
The Commerce Department, Samsung and the press office of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott did not immediately respond to the Statesman’s requests for comment.
The Statesman reported in December that mass production of semiconductor chips at the facility in Taylor — which has about 17,000 residents in eastern Williamson County — would be delayed by at least half a year, until 2025. The facility was on track to start
production in late 2024, but the company could not comment on when mass production would begin, a spokesperson said in December.
The 6 million-squarefoot plant sits on more than 1,000 acres, near U.S. 79 and County Road 401, and is expected to employ about 2,000 people.
When Samsung announced the facility, it said it planned to invest $6 billion in buildings and property improvements and $11 billion in machinery and equipment. The semiconductor manufacturing plant is expected to be the company’s most advanced to date.
In the first 10 years of the project, Samsung is expected to receive about $680 million in total tax breaks and other incentives from Taylor, Williamson County, the Taylor school district and the state.
Samsung has had a presence in Austin, where it has an operational facility, since 1997. But the company could add as many as 11 more chip production facilities in Central Texas in the coming decades, according to tax incentive filings.