A South Korean company that committed to the largest single foreign investment in the United States with a semiconductor plant proposed for Central Texas has reportedly delayed plans for when mass production will kick into gear at the site.
Bloomberg News, citing the newspaper Seoul Economic Daily, reported Samsung Electronics won’t start mass production at its $17 billion semiconductor plant in the Austin, Texas, northeast suburb of Taylor until some point in 2025.
Construction on the plant is underway. Samsung reached an agreement with the city of Taylor in 2021.
"The Samsung Taylor fab is on target to be operational by the end of 2024. We cannot comment on timing for mass production," a spokesperson for Samsung Electronics told CoStar News in an email.
Multiple news reports added the delay in mass production could be a blow to President Biden’s plans to ramp up semiconductor production in the country. A Deloitte report on the semiconductor industry, published earlier this year, found more than 80% of semiconductor manufacturing takes place in Asia.
In 2022, Biden introduced the CHIPS and Science Act. The bill, which called for billions of dollars of incentives for companies that specialize in semiconductor manufacturing, became law in August 2022, a little more than eight months after Samsung announced it would build its $17 billion plant in Central Texas.
The delay in construction could lead to a shortage of semiconductor chips, according to the Bloomberg report. Semiconductor chips are used in a variety of everyday products, such as smart phones, televisions, automobiles, washing machines and refrigerators.
Samsung is not the only major semiconductor manufacturer to delay mass production at a new plant in the United States, according to Bloomberg. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing planned to start mass production on its Phoenix plant in late 2024, but, per Bloomberg, announced such plans would be delayed until 2025.
This article was updated Dec. 28 to include comment from Samsung and to clarify that Samsung is delaying mass production, not construction.