Samsung Electronics Co. from South Korea is considering an investment of up to $ 17 billion to build a chip factory in Arizona, Texas or New York, according to documents and people familiar with the company’s plans.
Samsung is researching two locations in and around Phoenix, two locations in and near Austin, and a large industrial campus in western New York’s Genesee County, according to one man.
An important factor in whether Samsung continues to expand will be the availability of incentives from the US federal government to offset those offered by foreign countries and lower costs in other parts of the world, according to someone familiar with the matter.
The proposal comes as the US weighs in on allocating billions of dollars in funding to increase US chip production and reduce its dependence on Taiwan, China and South Korea. New incentives for chip manufacturing have been included in the National Defense Authorization Act adopted in January, although the measures have not yet received funding.
The plant proposed by Samsung would employ up to 1,900 people and aims to be operational by October 2022, according to correspondence viewed by The Wall Street Journal between Samsung and the manager of Goodyear, Arizona, one of the places the company is considering. As is customary with large industrial projects, local authorities Goodyear offers a number of incentives, including tax cuts and infrastructure upgrades to attract the plant, according to the letter.