Samsung Electronics Co is considering spending more than US$10 billion building its most advanced logic chipmaking plant in the US, a major investment that it hopes would win more US clients and help it catch up with industry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電).
The world’s largest memorychip and smartphone maker is in discussions to locate a facility in Austin, Texas, capable of fabricating chips as advanced as 3 nanometers, people familiar with the matter said.
Plans are preliminary and subject to change, but for now the aim is to start construction this year, install major equipment from next year, then begin operations as early as 2023, they said.
Photo: AFP
While the investment amount could fluctuate, Samsung’s plans would mean upward of US$10 billion to bankroll the project, one of the people said.
Samsung is taking advantage of a concerted US government effort to counter China’s rising economic prowess and lure back home some of the advanced manufacturing that over the past decades has gravitated toward Asia.
The hope is that such production bases in the US would galvanize local businesses and support US industry and chip design.
Intel Corp’s troubles ramping up on technology and its potential reliance on TSMC and Samsung for chipmaking only underscored the extent to which Asian giants have forged ahead in the past few years.
The envisioned plant would be its first to use extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, the standard for next-generation silicon, in the US, the people said, asking not to be identified talking about internal deliberations.
If Samsung goes ahead, it would effectively go head-to-head on US soil with TSMC, which is on track to build its own US$12 billion chip plant in Arizona by 2024.
Samsung is trying to catch TSMC in the so-called foundry business of making chips for the world’s corporations — a particularly pivotal capability given a deepening shortage of semiconductors in the past few weeks.
Under Samsung family scion Jay Y. Lee, the company has said it wants to be the biggest player in the US$400 billion chip industry.
It plans to invest US$116 billion into its foundry and chip design businesses over the next decade, aiming to catch TSMC by offering chips made using 3 nanometer technology from next year.
It already dominates the market for memory chips and is trying to increase its presence in the more profitable market for logic devices, such as the processors that run smartphones and computers.
It already counts Qualcomm Inc and Nvidia Corp as customers, companies that historically relied on TSMC exclusively.
It has two EUV plants, one near its main chip site in Hwaseong, South Korea, and another coming online nearby at Pyeongtaek.
To close a deal, Samsung might need time to negotiate potential incentives with US President Joe Biden’s administration.
The company has hired people in Washington to lobby on behalf of the deal and is ready to go ahead with the new administration in place, the people said.
Tax benefits and subsidies would ease Samsung’s financial burden, but the company might go ahead even without major incentives, one of the people said.
Samsung has been looking into overseas chipmaking for years. Intensifying trade tensions between the US and China and now the COVID-19 pandemic are stoking uncertainty over the reliability and economics of the global supply chain.
Plants in the US could help the South Korean chipmaker strike better deals with key clients in the US, particularly in competition with TSMC.
From Microsoft Corp to Amazon.com Inc and Google, the world’s largest cloud computing firms are increasingly designing their own silicon, aiming to tailor chips to power their vast data centers more efficiently.
All of them need manufacturers such as TSMC or Samsung to turn their blueprints into reality.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last