Samsung Is Considering Another Texas Location To Site $17 billion Chip Factory

According to a recent filing with Texas state officials by Samsung Electronics, the company has applied for tax breaks to potentially build its planned $17 billion U.S. chip factory in a location in Texas different from Austin as earlier reported. Although it already has a chip plant located in Austin, the filing showed that the proposed chip plant will not be located in Austin.

The publicized filing showed that the company is looking to site its new chip factory in Williamson County in Texas.  The chip contract manufacturing facility would consist of an investment “in excess of $17 billion dollars” and result in 1,800 new jobs, the document mentioned.

In May, a South Korean newspaper first reported that Samsung Electronics Co Ltd may soon start the construction of a planned $17 billion U.S. chip plant in the third quarter of this year. The newspaper report also mentioned that the company hopes that this new chip plant becomes operational by 2024. The Electronic Times while citing unnamed industry sources reported that Samsung plans on applying an advanced 5-nanometer extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography chip-making process at the plant, and the plant is expected to be sited in Austin, Texas.

The publicized document also showed that Williamson County which is home to the Taylor Independent School District is considering the tax breaks Samsung has applied for. The school district is considering capping the taxable value of Samsung’s proposed facility at $80 million for 10 years instead of the market value of $4.35 billion estimated as of 2029, according to the document.

Samsung had previously sought incentives from Travis County, Austin, where it has its existing chip plant, to possibly build the $17 billion facility there but as shown on the website for the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts on Friday, there has been no new public documentation filed for the Travis County site since March.

In the document, the electronics company also reiterated that it is also looking at alternative sites in the United States including Arizona and New York, as well as in South Korea, which means that Williamson County is merely a proposed site subject to change.