South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. is considering an investment of as much as $ 17 billion to build a chip factory in Arizona, Texas or New York, according to documents and people familiar with the company’s plans.
According to one of the people, Samsung is investigating two locations in and around Phoenix, two locations in and near Austin and a large industrial campus in Western New York’s Genesee County.
An important factor in whether Samsung is moving forward with the expansion is the availability of U.S. federal government incentives to compensate those offered overseas and cheaper costs in other parts of the world, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The proposal comes as the US weighs billions of dollars in funding to grow U.S. chip production and reduce its dependence on Taiwan, China and South Korea. New incentives to make chips have been included in the National Defense Authorization Act passed in January, although the measures have yet to receive funding.
According to Samsung’s proposed plant, up to 1,900 people will work and it is intended to be operational by October 2022, according to correspondence sent by The Wall Street Journal between Samsung and Goodyear City Manager, Ariz. , viewed. As usual with major industrial projects, local Goodyear authorities are offering a range of incentives, including tax cuts and infrastructure upgrades to attract the factory, according to the letter.