How a little Texas town snagged a US$17 billion Samsung chip factory deal
- The power company head told Samsung’s president that its industrial users in Texas did not suffer outages during last winter’s massive snowstorm
- Samsung said the plant, which is projected to create 2,000 hi-tech jobs, would start production in the second half of 2024
Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell is the first to admit few people had heard of his small town of Taylor in Central Texas before South Korean conglomerate Samsung announced it was building its new US$17 billion chip factory there.
The wafer fabrication plant, which is expected to produce advanced high-performance chips, is hailed by local, state and US officials as an important step in shoring up domestic chip supply and reducing dependence on Chinese production.
“Today, Taylor, Texas might be better known around the world than any other city in central Texas,” Gravell, the county’s top elected official, said during a Wednesday interview.
Gravell attributed the success of Tuesday’s announcement to direct collaboration with Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s office, who he said got personally involved to secure the plant’s electricity supply with Sempra Energy’s Oncor Electric Delivery Co.
Gravell said Oncor’s Chief Executive Allen Nye met with Samsung President Jung-bae Lee in Austin earlier this year to assure the company that industrial users on Oncor’s network did not suffer outages during last winter’s massive Texas snowstorm.
Samsung has also struck an agreement with Canadian EPCOR Utilities Inc to build a water pipeline to the plant from Alcoa, 25 miles (40km) east of Taylor, Gravell said.