Samsung Electronics Co. is considering an investment in a chip factory that could cost up to $ 13 billion.
The South Korean company is looking for two locations in Austin, Texas, two locations in Phoenix and one location in Genesee County in New York, sources said Wall Street newspaper.
Samsung wants to take the opportunity to negotiate with the federal government while the United States works to depend less on Taiwan, China and South Korea, the sources said. Samsung will be negotiating with the government tax and other incentives because it would be cheaper to develop its product in other parts of the world.
The chip manufacturing incentives were approved in January with the National Defense Authorization Law, but have not yet received the promised funding.
Samsung is trying to compete with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), which is also based in the United States and is a leader in the chip manufacturing industry here. TSMC expects to have a $ 12 billion plant up and running in Arizona by 2024, Bloomberg reported.
“If Samsung really wants to achieve its goal of becoming the biggest chip maker by 2030, it needs massive investment in the U.S. to reach TSMC,” said Greg Roh, senior vice president at HMC Securities. “TSMC will likely continue to advance 3nm process nodes at its Arizona plant and Samsung can do the same. A challenging task is to protect EUV equipment now, when Hynix and Micron they are also looking to buy the machines ”.
Samsung’s goal is to have a chip factory in operation by October 2022 and employ 1,900 people in that factory. There is consideration of investing $ 10 billion in a factory near Austin, sources told Bloomberg.
The Austin City Council met in December after Samsung requested the zoning of part of its land for industrial development. A report by the brokerage found that Intel is likely to place more orders with Samsung, so it is not relying so much on TSMC.
Samsung wants to be the largest company in a $ 400 billion industry and plans to invest $ 116 billion in the next decade to make that happen.