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Samsung to build $17 bil chip plant in Texas

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Samsung wrangled and roped one of the priciest Texas-sized tax breaks and government (taxpayer) jobs incentives money. Companies promise more jobs than they deliver and most are low-wage jobs because of automation.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

invasion of Taiwan will be permitted once the Japanese and Texas plants are complete

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@Iron Lad

I agree. This decision probably had more to do with the US government pressuring Samsung to set up fabs in America that it was about it being a good business decision.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Finally, they already have a 14nm fab in Austin, so another fab close-by doesn't seem unreasonable from a logistics stand-point. The new fab will probably service Tesla and other automotive companies as EV sales take-off.

This is a more likely reason.

In the highly automated, expensive and technically intensive semiconductor industry, labor costs are meaningless. Pretty sure a technician in a fab plant has a six figure salary because you need the best of the best. A minor mistake can derail the whole operation. Please correct me if I am wrong.

I also think that Texas probably less restrictive regulations than California in regards to semiconductor operations.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

It's too early to say if China lost the semiconductor race. They have a population of over 1 billion who are mostly nationalistic and will buy Chinese brands over foreign products. That is a huge economies of scale advantage that the US, Japan and Korea can't match.

India, Russia and other countries in Asia also buy Chinese too, so that's a huge market.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Samsung would have far more success in the world if they rebranded like Facebook to Meta, Google to Alphabet. They won't, because they are proud Koreans - but the word Samsung means nothing except family heritage and in places like Japan has bad connotations

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Samsung is now American company.

But glad it didn't choose California.

Eh? They're already in California. They chose California years ago.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

More winning for Republican-run states.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Texas still believes in trickle-down economics.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Concerned Citizen

Interesting that they chose Texas rather than traditional tech hub California.

You've obviously not heard of Silicon Hills around Austin, Texas. All the major US tech companies have a presence there and Samsung is already there.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Samsung is now American company.

But glad it didn't choose California.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Interesting that they chose Texas rather than traditional tech hub California.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Fantastic! China not only shot themselves in the foot, they blew the leg off. Hope this wonderful trend continues.

The Chinese market is lost as they’ll buy their own. Trump’s ban on Huawei forced China to make their own chips as the poster above mentioned.

Even if they all make them in Texas or Arizona, I think you might mean Trump shot himself in the foot as billions of dollars are lost.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Caixin/China-creates-new-memory-chip-champ-but-will-customers-come

https://www.anandtech.com/show/15714/ymtc-introduces-128-layer-1-33tb-qlc-3d-nand

https://www.prnewswire.com/il/news-releases/china-moves-closer-to-self-reliance-in-7nm-chip-production-822983467.html

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

@mobius217

You have a few highly-paid PhDs walking around to ensure things are running smoothly, but most workers will be lower-skilled workers making $60K and below like wafer fabrication operator who are responsible for cleaning the machines and keeping it supplied.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

@Reckless

It's too early to say if China lost the semiconductor race. They have a population of over 1 billion who are mostly nationalistic and will buy Chinese brands over foreign products. That is a huge economies of scale advantage that the US, Japan and Korea can't match.

Even if they made a 3 or 5-nm process that has lower transistor density than Intel, TSMC or Samsung's versions, I would imagine China would have an easier time scaling their process and getting costs down. The government would subsidize the manufacturing costs and 1 billion Chinese people would be willing to buy products using the Chinese fab.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

@Concerned Citizen

I'm not surprised. California is known for software engineering, not semiconductor manufacturing. Intel has been struggling immensely with sub-14nm nodes, so I doubt Samsung would be interested in hiring Intel employees.

Labor costs are probably the deciding factor. While a semiconductor fab has highly-paid PhDs in Electrical Engineering, it also has a lot of unskilled laborers. I'd imagine the unskilled people in Taylor, TX would be cheaper than the unskilled people in CA.

Finally, they already have a 14nm fab in Austin, so another fab close-by doesn't seem unreasonable from a logistics stand-point. The new fab will probably service Tesla and other automotive companies as EV sales take-off.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

@uktokyo

I doubt it. The Japanese will never buy Korean-branded products due to their hate.

In any case, Samsung makes most of its profits from component manufacturing, not consumer devices. Samsung needs to focus on their 2 and 3nm fabs.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

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