Samsung Considers $10 Billion Texas Chipmaking Plant (bloomberg.com) 37
Samsung is considering spending more than $10 billion building its most advanced logic chipmaking plant in the U.S., a major investment it hopes will win more American clients and help it catch up with industry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Bloomberg News: The world's largest memory chip and smartphone maker is in discussions to locate a facility in Austin, Texas, capable of fabricating chips as advanced as 3 nanometers in the future, people familiar with the matter said. Plans are preliminary and subject to change but for now the aim is to kick off construction this year, install major equipment from 2022, then begin operations as early as 2023, they said. While the investment amount could fluctuate, Samsung's plans would mean upwards of $10 billion to bankroll the project, one of the people said.
Samsung is taking advantage of a concerted U.S. government effort to counter China's rising economic prowess and lure back home some of the advanced manufacturing that over the past decades has gravitated toward Asia. The hope is that such production bases in the U.S. will galvanize local businesses and support American industry and chip design. Intel's troubles ramping up on technology and its potential reliance in the future on TSMC and Samsung for at least some of its chipmaking only underscored the extent to which Asian giants have forged ahead in recent years.
Samsung is taking advantage of a concerted U.S. government effort to counter China's rising economic prowess and lure back home some of the advanced manufacturing that over the past decades has gravitated toward Asia. The hope is that such production bases in the U.S. will galvanize local businesses and support American industry and chip design. Intel's troubles ramping up on technology and its potential reliance in the future on TSMC and Samsung for at least some of its chipmaking only underscored the extent to which Asian giants have forged ahead in recent years.
This one might actually happen (Score:2)
Yay, I guess?
Or it may not, (Score:2)
because usually such announcements are made mostly in preparation to start negotiating subsidies, tax benefits and other race-to-the-bottom measures that the business which is shopping for preferential treatment is trying to secure.
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Of course. Businesses can't survive without repeatedly sucking at the taxpayer teet. It's always up to the taxpayer to make sure businesses don't fail, especially the multi-billion dollar, international ones.
It increases tax revenue (Score:2)
The way these are typically structured, it INCREASES tax revenue. In fact, it not only increases total tax revenue, it even increases property tax revenue, which is the tax that's typically abated.
Samsung bought 258 acres of empty land for this project.
Let's say that land is worth $100 million. So the property tax is $2 million / year.
That's the tax paid, and received by the local government today - $2 million / year. With no deal, the government gets $2 million / year.
If Samsung develops that property to
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That discussion was about just the property tax, yes.
The deferment of property taxes means almost a hundred times as much property tax is paid.
If you want to talk about total economic impact, yep there's a lot more that goes into that. Primarily the cost to the city is the cost to provide services for new people who move there for the job (as opposed to existing residents who get a job there). There could in some cases be Infrastructure improvements needed, ie road widening, but this project is adjacent to
Re: Or it may not, (Score:2)
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SK gets a lot of US support already. They are pretty high up on the list of allies with access to military tech. They are an F-35 customer and we even gave them access to Aegis to develop their own warships around the system.
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The empirical evidence suggests that most of the time these are bad deals for the area administered by the "local government" as the "growth" rarely pays for the costs of such deals. Such deals, however, very often make some of the officers of the local government that are involved in the deals very rich.
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What are you talking about?
The riot this past summer in Kenosha, Wisconsin was not a "race riot" as depicted by the media.
The real cause was that there was a shortage of new Mercedes SUVs. I shit you not. Foxconn's special deal has worked out *so well* for Wisconsin and created such affluence among the general population that they will literally burn down main street if there's no enough luxury cars.
Kyle Rittenhouse only showed up because he's a "Ram Tough" man and wanted to punish those Mercedes-buying a
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What are you talking about?
I am talking about empirical research on actual deals like the one described, where the government in a location (not necessarily the local government) makes concessions to attract business. Typically such deals end with the population being worse off than before the deal.
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Whoosh.
The Foxconn deal in Wisconsin has been a total bomb.
Site shopping by large corporations and strong-arming states or cities into giving away the store is toxic and should be restricted somehow.
I don't know how, maybe Congress could impose hefty Federal corporate taxes on the dollar cost value of state and local concessions in real estate and infrastructure development given to corporations that use expansion as a tool to extract concessions. This would zero out the benefit of shopping for concessions
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Sure, no taxes on the multi billion dollar corporation but the slobs making minimum wage still pay taxes?
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There's also the very obvious commercial and military advantage to building as many advanced fabs within U.S. borders as possible. Having the entire world put all its eggs into a small group of Asian baskets is just begging for disaster.
Right now Intel has the only advanced fabs left under direct U.S. ownership,
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Having the entire world put all its eggs into a small group of Asian baskets is just begging for disaster.
Actually, that has so far been a recipe for huge growth. Putting oneself at the mercy of the US government by purchasing from the US only, on the other hand, that's just asking a capricious, vengeful and petty government presiding over a rapidly diminishing share of the world market to squeeze you by the balls. Not smart.
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I'm sure California will stand firm against the loss of tax revenue from Samsung and its employees and suppliers.
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Anything Samsung builds now won'
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Its not because of fabs, its because companies canceled their orders too soon and others took their place. A lot of the problem lies in testing and production facilities, not the fabs themselves. How do I know this? I order chips and am in contact will sales people.
Intel would be their first customer. (Score:2)
We know they are desperately looking for someone who can fab 5nm chips. So there you go!
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Intel would be their first customer. We know they are desperately looking for someone who can fab 5nm chips.
Industrial espionage is easier on your home turf too.
I wouldn't bring it up but Intel has been a shady dealer from waaay back.
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It's there, just Intel went down the wrong path.
The problem is, these are billion dollar level mistakes.
Intel has 5nm fabs in the US - research fabs capable of doing solid core R&D in chipmaking and fabrication.
The problem lies in the fact modern chipmaking is a multi-billion dollar enterprise. The manufacturers of the equipment only make 2-3
Much of what you said is wrong (Score:4, Insightful)
1. "The manufacturers of the equipment only make 2-3 a year at a billion dollars each, and we're using EUV methods, so the light source is weak and costs a billion dollars itself." False. The very most expensive machines are ASML steppers, at over $100 million each. Most other semiconductor equipment is nowhere near that expensive. PVD, CVD, Etch, ion implanters, etc., are all considerably less.
2. ASML sold nine EUV steppers in F21Q1 alone [fool.com].
3. Fabs are very expensive not because of a few super-expensive machines, but because of dozens of merely expensive machines.
2. Cutting edge fabs are $10-20 billion, not "hundreds of billions."
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GOOD and this is why: (Score:2)
Korea is a democratic US ally and CONUS fabs are beyond wartime sea and air freight interdiction.
Geography matters, war, OOTW, non-linear war and economic war matter because war is intrinsic to our species.
US outsourcing was economic sabotage but cooperating to bring manufacturing inshore is of major strategic benefit. Chip fabs don't exist in an economic vacuum so the US would be wise to inshore as many as practical.
Note (Score:1)
Can't wait... (Score:3)
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Just in time for another round of gerrymandering. Austin is only covered by 6 different congressional districts, I'm sure they can get a few more in.
We really need a backup (Score:2)
So when china decides to take over Taiwan the world can still get chips.
Oh, Man these corporates wont rest till .... (Score:2)
AOC says (Score:1)