The impact
The proposed investment will support over 20,000 jobs, with nearly 4,500 manufacturing jobs and 17,000 construction jobs created over the next five years, according to a news release.
“This announcement dedicates $40 million in workforce funding to developing future generations of industry-leading technologists, technicians and engineers,” said Lael Brainard, White House national economic advisor and co-chair of the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors Implementation Steering Council. “It will build on Samsung's proven record of workforce engagement in Texas, including robust partnerships with local education institutions like Austin Community College and Taylor High School.”
The investment will be transformative for the entire region surrounding the Taylor plant, White House senior administration officials said.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo remarked that the jobs created would be “well-paying, family-supporting jobs.”
Some context
The federal funding—from the CHIPS and Science Act signed into effect in 2022—will help expand Samsung’s footprint in Taylor to include an advanced packaging facility, a research and development center, and a second fabrication plant, furthering the President’s goal to produce 20% of the world’s leading-edge logic chips by 2030, according to a news release.
The paired investments from the U.S. Department of Commerce and Samsung indicate plans to build a cluster of semiconductor factories in Central Texas. Samsung will also use the funding for facility expansion in Austin.
Over two dozen suppliers have already committed to coming to the region to support the cluster, according to White House senior administration officials.
“All of this, of course, is more important than where we started because all artificial intelligence is run on and trained on by chips,” Raimondo said.
Raimondo highlighted the impressive scale of the initial fabrication facility under construction in Taylor, which spans an area equivalent to 11 full-size football fields. With the addition of CHIPS funding, the Taylor site will have two facilities of this size.
The announcement marks the final string of CHIPS and Science grants from the White House.
“Inviting Samsung to call Williamson County home has eclipsed all of our expectations. Williamson County has become a world leader in developing an ecosystem for the semiconductor industry. Its impact will be felt for generations to come,” Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell said.
