Report: Samsung to Pick Taylor, Texas, for its $17 Bln Chip Plant

The logo of Samsung is seen on a building during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain February 25, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman
The logo of Samsung is seen on a building during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain February 25, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman
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Report: Samsung to Pick Taylor, Texas, for its $17 Bln Chip Plant

The logo of Samsung is seen on a building during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain February 25, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman
The logo of Samsung is seen on a building during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain February 25, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Tuesday it had not made a final decision on the location of a new $17 billion chip plant in the United States, after the Wall Street Journal reported it would be Taylor, Texas.

The WSJ said Texas Governor Greg Abbott was scheduled to make an "economic announcement" on Tuesday.

A site in Texas's Williamson County, near the city of Taylor, offered the best incentives package of the sites Samsung was considering, sources previously told Reuters. The world's biggest memory chipmaker has said it is also considering sites in Arizona and New York.

The new plant is set to make advanced logic chips used to power mobile devices and autonomous vehicles, as the global auto industry faces a significant semiconductor shortage.

The factory would mark Samsung's second chip factory in Texas, where it already manufactures chips at a plant in Austin.

Samsung is joining rivals TSMC and Intel in the race to expand chip contract manufacturing in the United States, where the sector is seen as an area of strategic competition with China.

US President Joe Biden's administration has promised billions of dollars in federal funding to boost chip manufacturing and research to ensure it has an edge over China in advanced technologies and to address shortages for critical industries like autos.



Nvidia Says New Rule Will Weaken US Leadership in AI

The Nvidia logo is seen near computer motherboard in this illustration taken January 8, 2024. (Reuters)
The Nvidia logo is seen near computer motherboard in this illustration taken January 8, 2024. (Reuters)
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Nvidia Says New Rule Will Weaken US Leadership in AI

The Nvidia logo is seen near computer motherboard in this illustration taken January 8, 2024. (Reuters)
The Nvidia logo is seen near computer motherboard in this illustration taken January 8, 2024. (Reuters)

Nvidia on Monday criticized a new effort by the Biden administration to tighten Washington's grip on artificial intelligence chip flows around the world, saying the regulation would jeopardize current US leadership in AI.

The new rule, which is expected to be published as soon as Monday, "threatens to derail innovation and economic growth worldwide," and would "undermine America's leadership," Nvidia Vice President of Government Affairs Ned Finkle said in a statement.

Reuters reported last month on the US Commerce Department's plan for approving global AI chip exports while also preventing bad actors from accessing them. One aim of the restrictions is to keep AI from supercharging China's military capabilities.

Finkle argued America's leading role in AI would be hurt because the rule "would impose bureaucratic control over how America's leading semiconductors, computers, systems, and even software are designed and marketed globally."

The Santa Clara, California-based company also said the rule would not improve US national security and it would control technology that is already widely available in gaming and consumer hardware.

"Rather than mitigate any threat, the new Biden rules would only weaken America's global competitiveness, undermining the innovation that has kept the US ahead," Finkle said.