A foreign media report came out on the 22nd that Samsung Electronics is considering expanding the semiconductor plant in Austin, Texas. The photo shows Samsung Electronics’ Seocho office building in Seocho-gu, Seoul. [연합뉴스]
– Bloomberg News reported on the 22nd (local time) that Samsung Electronics is considering expanding its semiconductor plant by investing more than 10 billion dollars (about 11 trillion won) in Texas.
Through an anonymous source, Bloomberg said, “Samsung Electronics is discussing a plan to build a semiconductor plant in Austin, Texas, and will be able to produce semiconductors of less than 3 nanometers (nm·1 nm is 1 billionth of a meter). We are aiming to operate the plant in 2023.” In addition, it reported that Samsung is trying to catch up with Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s largest foundry (consignment production) company that competes.
TSMC has announced that it will invest $12 billion (about 13.2 trillion won) in Arizona by 2024 to build a factory for 5 nanometer microprocessing. The industry believes that Samsung Electronics will inevitably expand its foundry investment in order to close the gap with TSMC.
Samsung Electronics is currently operating two fabs (factory) that produce memory semiconductors and 10-nano-class system semiconductors in the Austin, Texas factory. If Bloomberg’s report is true, it is adding an additional 3-nano process high-tech semiconductor plant to the already operating plant.
The report by Bloomberg News is related to the fact that Intel, the largest semiconductor company in the United States, announced in its fourth quarter earnings release on the 21st (local time) that it will expand the consignment production of semiconductors. As Intel declared that it would increase its outsourcing, it was predicted that Samsung Electronics could make a decision to expand the factory in preparation for receiving core parts such as Intel’s central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) in the future.
Regarding the Bloomberg report, an official from Samsung Electronics said, “Austin plant expansion is a matter under consideration, but the scale or timing of the investment has not been decided at all.”
Reporter Park Hyung-soo [email protected]
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