The US Commerce Department announced on Monday a $6.4 billion grant to Samsung, marking the Biden administration’s latest effort to increase domestic chip production.
The funding will allow the South Korean giant to build four new advanced facilities in Taylor, Texas, and expand its existing site in Austin. The new factories will include two logic fabs, an R&D fab and an advanced packaging facility.
In addition to government subsidies, Samsung announced that it will invest over $40 billion in its existing Texas site in the coming years, thereby also supporting the creation of “over 20,000 jobs”, the Department of Commerce said.
The funding initiative is meant as a “catalyst for continued private sector investments to help secure the long-term stability we need to put America at the beginning of our semiconductor supply chain and to safeguard a strong resilient ecosystem here at home”, the US secretary of commerce Gina Raimondo said.
“The chips that Samsung will be making in Texas are important components to our most advanced technologies, from artificial intelligence to high-performance computing and 5G communications.”
The investment comes as part of a wave of funding announcements by the Biden administration under the Chips and Science Act, a law passed in 2022 to boost investment and support US production of semiconductors and decrease dependence on chips manufactured in Asia.
In just the last month, the US government announced it would grant Intel close to $20 billion and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) around $6.6 billion in funding for similar ventures.
“With President Biden’s leadership and Samsung’s commitment to the US, this proposed funding advances America’s leadership in semiconductor manufacturing on the world stage,” Raimondo said.
Samsung’s existing chip factory project was initially announced in 2021 when the company committed to building a chip-making plant in Taylor. However, in December 2023, it announced there would be delays in the building process and the facility would not start mass production before 2025.
Samsung is yet to confirm an opening date for the newly announced facilities.
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