Texas Instruments has reportedly notified employees of up to 400 layoffs as the company wraps up the operation of its older 150-millimeter facilities in Dallas and Sherman, according to KXII. As reported by TrendForce, 163 employees will have their last day in December, while a further 20 will be cut by April next year. Overall, it’s reported that 400 positions will be cut due to these closures as the company migrates from 150mm to 300mm fabs.
Despite these cuts, Texas Instruments says that it remains committed to North Texas. Earlier this year, the company said that it would invest $60 billion in semiconductor manufacturing, including the expansion of its 300mm fabs in Texas and Utah. These are projected to create up to 60,000 new jobs, and employees who helped with the closure of its older plants will be given priority for openings at Texas Instruments’ upcoming facilities.
The company opened its 150mm fabs in Dallas and Sherman in the 1980s, but as technology progressed, Texas Instruments has since switched over to 300mm wafers. This is the current industry standard for high-volume production, providing better economies of scale. The expansion of Texas Instruments’ fabs in Texas and Utah has been covered by the Biden-era CHIPS and Science Act. Under this funding, the company is set to receive $1.6 billion for these projects, alongside an additional $8 billion in investment tax credits.
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These new sites are expected to produce analog and embedded chips from 28nm to 130nm process nodes. Although these aren’t the latest, cutting-edge process nodes that TSMC plans to produce at its Arizona fabs, they’re still crucial to several industries, like automotive and medicine.
The United States realized this vulnerability during the COVID-19 pandemic, when border closures led to chip shortages affecting everything from cars to computers. Both the Biden and Trump administrations realized this, and they’re creating policies to expand semiconductor production within the U.S.
Biden’s CHIPS and Science Act has kick-started the construction of several semiconductor factories, particularly TSMC’s Arizona fab. Trump then expanded this with his policies. Only time will tell if these strategies will help America gain semiconductor independence or if it will have to continuously rely on Taiwan for the majority of chips.
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