Samsung told Reuters that it is continuing due diligence in multiple locations and that it has yet to make a decision
South Korean tech conglomerate Samsung Electronics is in the final stages of finalising the construction of a $17 billion semiconductor factory in Williamson County in the U.S. state of Texas, Reuters reported.
The factory will make advanced logic semiconductor chips and is likely to create about 1,800 jobs, Samsung previously said in filings to state officials.
In July this year, the publication reported that Samsung Electronics had applied for tax breaks to potentially build its planned $17 billion US chip factory in a location in Texas other than Austin, where it has an existing chip plant.
Samsung had also sought incentives from Austin’s Travis County to possibly build the $17 billion facility there. However, there has been no new public documentation filed for the Travis County site since March.
Samsung told Reuters that it is continuing due diligence in multiple locations, and that it has yet to make a decision.
One of the people said though no decision has been made, the Austin suburb of Williamson County is the frontrunner due to the subsidies on offer as well as the likelihood of stable sources of electricity and water.
Samsung previously said it would start construction on the new 6-million-square-foot (557,418-sq-meter) plant in January, with production up and running by the end of 2024.
The plan comes at a time when the global auto industry faces a significant semiconductor shortage.
Recently, media reports suggested that Samsung Electronics is in talks with Tesla to make Tesla’s next-generation self-driving chips based on Samsung’s 7-nanometre chip production process. Samsung already produces chips in Tesla’s current Hardware 3 computers.
In the global chip contract manufacturing industry, Samsung is second to TSMC which had 52.9 per cent of market share compared to Samsung’s 17.3 per cent as of end-June, according to analysis provider TrendForce.
