Samsung Secures $6.4B in Federal Grants for Texas Chip Production

The Commerce Department granted Samsung up to $6.4 billion in federal funding to increase chip manufacturing in central Texas, the department announced Monday. The two sides signed a “non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms” for direct funding under the Chips and Science Act (see 2208090062). Samsung expects to invest more than $40 billion and create more than 20,000 jobs in the region related to semiconductor production. The investment will “cement central Texas’s role as a state-of-the-art semiconductor ecosystem,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. Samsung will manufacture “important components to our most advanced technologies, from artificial intelligence to high-performance computing and 5G communications,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said. Samsung plans to build a “comprehensive advanced manufacturing ecosystem, ranging from leading-edge logic to advanced packaging to R&D” in Taylor, Texas, near Austin. The company plans to expand facilities in Austin to “support the production of leading fully depleted silicon-on-insulator process technologies for critical U.S. industries, including aerospace, defense, and automotive.” Strengthening local semiconductor production will position the U.S. as “a global semiconductor manufacturing destination,” said Kye Hyun Kyung, CEO of Samsung’s Device Solutions Division.