An entity associated with a San Francisco-based company has filed paperwork with the state of Texas to request tax incentives for a semiconductor manufacturing plant in a college town between Houston and Austin, Texas, a move that reflects the competitive stakes involved with tax breaks.

A company called America’s Foundry Bryan LLC is seeking Chapter 312 tax incentives for a minimum $50 million investment for a semiconductor plant to be built in Bryan, Texas, according to paperwork recently filed with the Texas Comptroller’s office. The Chapter 312 incentive would exempt America’s Foundry Bryan from tax increases for a period of 10 years. 

America’s Foundry Bryan, in exchange for the tax abatement, would build a 3 million-square-foot semiconductor plant about halfway between Austin and Houston. The company initially sought to build the plant in one of 12 states offering incentives for semiconductor manufacturing and narrowed its search to New York, Oregon and Texas, according to the state filing.

Such searches can pit municipalities and states against each other to try to lure operations with jobs for residents. A number of businesses from California have relocated to Texas, a state with a low cost of doing business.

The plant would be built on property owned by Texas A&M University, a public institution of higher learning located in College Station, Texas, a few miles south of Bryan. Construction on the project could start as early as the fourth quarter of this year and continue through 2028. The plant would open in 2030, with the tax incentive starting that year and running through 2039, according to the state filing.

America’s Foundry Bryan’s project, called Project Factory One, would be built on 288 acres of an undeveloped portion of Texas A&M’s RELLIS Education and Research campus. The application calls the proposed semiconductor manufacturing project the “first of its kind.” 

Neither America’s Foundry Bryan nor its parent company, San Francisco-based Substrate Inc., responded to requests to comment on this story.

An economic impact report by Austin-based Impact DataSource LLC said the semiconductor plant would create 2,000 jobs during the next decade, with America’s Foundry Bryan making a total capital investment of $108 billion between now and 2064.

The state filing shows America’s Foundry Bryan is seeking funding from the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund, Texas Enterprise Fund, Texas Enterprise Zone Project Designation, Texas Skills Development Fund and the U.S. CHIPS Incentive Program. 

The funding applications would be in addition to the tax abatement programs America’s Foundry Bryan, a startup subsidiary of Substrate Inc., are seeking through Brazos County, Texas, and the city of Bryan.

“Neither America’s Foundry Bryan nor its parent company, Substrate Inc., have applied for or received any federal, state, or local permits for activities at the proposed project site because the site selection process is not final,” America’s Foundry Bryan said in its application.

America’s Foundry Bryan, in its application, said advanced semiconductor manufacturing is a competitive and desirable economic activity that attracts large-scale development.

The application added America’s Foundry Bryan is still finalizing its site-selection process for the semiconductor plant.

“A successful foundry can generate hundreds of billions of dollars in direct economic impact and trillions of dollars of indirect economic impact over the long term. Each establishment of a successful foundry draws entire ecosystems of the most advanced manufacturing methods and employs individuals at every level of the respective economy,” America’s Foundry Bryan said in its Texas Comptroller application.

Bryan is competing with potential sites in New York and Oregon for America’s Foundry Bryan’s business.

New York committed $10 billion to semiconductor production through its Green Chips Act. The Empire State convinced chip manufacturer Micron Technologies to make a 20-year, $100 billion investment for a manufacturing plant near Syracuse, New York. Micron had also considered Lockhart, Texas, a suburb of Austin, for its semiconductor plant before committing to Syracuse.

Oregon’s legislature, meanwhile, approved $190 million of incentives for semiconductor manufacturing in 2023. The incentives helped secure commitments from HP, Intel and Microchip for semiconductor production.

Substrate Inc. is a design and construction management company that specializes in projects such as bridge replacements, structural design and shoring systems. Neither America’s Foundry Bryan nor Substrate has a presence in Texas.