In the wake of recent crises, Samsung’s competition in the mobile field, and even outside of it, has been given a chance to eclipse the South Korean giant. Samsung is having none of that, and has doubled down on most of their efforts in response. In the field of semiconductor manufacturing, like others they dabble in, the nigh-unrivaled South Korean firm is far from content to sit on their laurels. In total, Samsung reportedly plans to spend around $24 billion this year, and almost half of that is set to be on semiconductor manufacturing operations. In order to get their Austin facility up to par with others for manufacturing under modern processes, and to bolster the local economy, Samsung will be throwing a little over $1 billion extra into their Austin, Texas chip factory.
The chip factory in Austin is one of Samsung’s larger operations, and is a cornerstone of the local economy in Austin. According to data from Impact Data Source, Samsung is responsible for about 10,755 jobs in the area, and has pumped some $3.6 billion into the local economy, making them a valued partner to the economic authorities of the Austin metro. The jobs and economic boost granted by Samsung’s operations are a big part of what makes Austin the type of area that it is, and Austin Mayor Steve Adler readily acknowledges as much.
This is the latest in a string of efforts by Samsung to beef up their manufacturing processes on various levels. This investment, among other things, will boost the output capacity of the facility’s current manufacturing offerings, though Samsung did not go into too much detail about exactly where the money would be going, or what, if any, special plans they had for the Austin facility. Being among Samsung’s largest factories in the US and the centerpiece of its host community’s local economy, the Austin factory is already fairly special. Samsung’s recent focus on contract manufacturing and bringing margins up in the field of flash memory paints a bit of a picture of how the facility may put its investment from Samsung to use, but with Samsung being tight-lipped on the matter, there is no real way to gauge the potential impact of the investment at this time.