Samsung Foundry is set to significantly boost its semiconductor investment in its upcoming fab complex in Taylor, Texas to around $44 billion, reports the Wall Street Journal. Apparently, the company plans to build another advanced fab in Taylor, Texas, and expand R&D operations at the site.
The bulk of Samsung's expanded investment will be directed towards Taylor, Texas, where the company is establishing an all-new semiconductor hub. This hub will include the already announced $17 billion state-of-the-art chip production facility and will add another fab module, an advanced packaging facility, and a research and development center. The second fab module that will be adjacent to the first one is projected to cost over $20 billion, which highlights Samsung's long-term commitment to the region.
To support this extensive expansion in Texas, Samsung is anticipated to receive substantial financial aid from the U.S. government under the CHIPS & Science Act. The South Korean tech giant is expected to be one of the largest single recipients of these funds, highlighting the significance of its investment in the U.S. semiconductor industry.
Samsung has not formally confirmed its expanded plans in Texas, but according to WSJ sources familiar with the matter, Samsung will held a ceremony to unveil its additional investments on April 15, 2024.
Despite facing challenges such as inflation, rising labor and material costs, the company is moving forward with its plans in the USA, with the first factory set to begin mass production in 2024, if everything goes well, according to the report.
In addition to chip production, Samsung is focusing on high bandwidth memory (HBM), a crucial component for AI computing. The company is also investing in advanced packaging techniques, such as 2.5-D and 3-D packaging, to enhance data-processing speeds. These technological advancements are essential for maintaining Samsung's competitive edge in the rapidly evolving semiconductor industry.
The new additions to Samsung's Taylor, Texas, campus are expected to play a crucial role in advancing Samsung's positions in the U.S. as well as America's position in the global semiconductor industry. In a bid to be competitive with Intel and TSMC in the U.S., Samsung will need to offer advanced production capabilities here, which includes producing chips at nodes below 4nm. Meanwhile, competing against Intel will be particularly hard as the company is building up several leading-edge fabs in America and two of its fabs in Arizona that are coming online shortly are capable of making chips on Intel 18A and 20A (1.8nm and 2nm-class) process technologies.
