(San Francisco) South Korean giant Samsung said on Tuesday it will build a microchip factory in Taylor, Texas, a $ 17 billion investment that is filling the United States as the semi shortage -conductors cause lead times in many industries.
“Welcome to Texas, Samsung! », Tweeted Greg Abbott, the governor of this southern state, after a press conference. “This is the largest foreign direct investment ever made in Texas,” he added.
The new factory, supposed to be operational by the end of 2024, should create more than 2,000 skilled jobs and “lay the foundations for a new chapter” for Samsung, Kinam Kim, vice president of Samsung said in a statement. the company’s electronic devices division.
The chips manufactured on this site will have applications in mobile technologies, 5G or even artificial intelligence, the group promises.
This investment will “help protect our supply chains, revitalize our industrial base and create good jobs locally,” welcomed in a statement two senior advisers to President Joe Biden, Brian Deese for the economy and Jake Sullivan for Security.
The world is currently experiencing a shortage of electronic components in Asia, which is forcing automakers and other industries to slow down production. Chips are essential in most electronics industries, such as smartphones and computers, the demand for which is exploding with the pandemic.
The two advisers stressed that today’s announcement was notably the result of discussions between the heads of state of the two countries.
Samsung, already present in the United States for 25 years, had filed documents on this project with Texas last January.
The group was looking to obtain tax credits of more than $ 800 million over 20 years from the authorities of this state, and specified that its choice was not yet made, between Arizona, New York, and South Korea.
The new plant will be located 25 km from an existing site in Austin, the capital of Texas.
Since coming to power, Joe Biden has tried to mobilize industry on the need to produce the precious components in the United States. .
US semiconductor giant Intel announced this year that it will invest $ 20 billion in two new plants in Arizona and that it plans to allocate between € 20 billion and € 80 billion to manufacture microchips in Europe over the next ten years.