The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said.
The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said.
The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements.
Photo: Bloomberg
The federal funding for Samsung, South Korea’s leading chipmaker, would come alongside significant additional US investment by the firm, the sources said.
In 2021, the company announced a US$17 billion project in Taylor, Texas, near an existing plant in Austin. It is not yet clear where the additional investment would be located.
The pending announcement only represents a preliminary agreement that could still change, and no final decision has been made. Samsung and the US Department of Commerce declined to comment, while the White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants — plus loans and loan guarantees valued at US$75 billion — to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil after decades of production abroad.
The US Department of Commerce earlier announced three CHIPS Act grants to producers of older-generation semiconductors.
Officials have been negotiating for months with makers of cutting-edge chips that would fuel the artificial intelligence boom, and have set aside about US$28 billion for those advanced projects, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo has said.
Intel Corp — the main US competitor to Samsung and TSMC — has been in talks for a CHIPS Act package of more than US$10 billion spanning grants and loans. Intel’s incentive deal is expected to be announced next week, with the other advanced chipmakers set to follow, one of the people said.
It is not clear whether companies beyond Intel are in line to receive loans or financing guarantees. Samsung has indicated that it is not interested in loans, the sources said.
There is also the separate issue of US$3.5 billion in CHIPS Act grants for production of military chips — money that is expected to go to Intel and has thrown a wrench in negotiations over the past few weeks after the Pentagon pulled out from its portion of the funding.
Samsung previously said its Taylor site is slated to begin mass production this year, but that timeline is reportedly being delayed to next year. Company officials have since said that they cannot confirm the mass production schedule.
Samsung has touted its economic impact on the Austin region in Texas, which rose to US$26.8 billion last year from US$13.6 billion the year before, according to a third-party report the firm published last month.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his