“The decision is imminent. My experience with Samsung is that they move nimbly and swiftly,” the publication cites Judge Bill Gravell of Williamson County, Texas as saying. The report notes that Williamson County is in the running for the new Samsung factory. Officials from the county have been meeting Samsung executives since January this year to try and woo the company to pick their site. Gravel, who was in charge of negotiating a deal with the Korean behemoth on behalf of his county, seemed confident that the company would construct the factory in the county. It has reportedly taken bore samples and started the land survey as well as engineering and design work for the factory. “In my heart, I would like to think that we have the project,” Gravell said. Williamson County is already home to Dell, while Apple is also constructing a campus there. They are now trying to woo Samsung as well, offering an extensive incentives package. The county would reportedly rebate the Korean company 90 percent of property taxes for the first 10 years, and 85 percent for ten more years thereafter. What they want in return is for Samsung to create 1,800 full-time jobs in the county. The company will also have to meet certain construction deadlines. Samsung could also reportedly save an additional $314 million in taxes over the next 10 years with a separate property tax incentives deal with the city of Taylor. All these incentives could make the company eventually pick the location in Williamson County. We will likely get to know that in the coming weeks.
Samsung may have finally decided on the location for its second chip factory in the US
Over the past few months, several chip giants such as Intel and TSMC have announced multi-billion investments to construct new factories in the US as chip shortage hits hard. Samsung, which already has a chip plant in Austin, also confirmed plans to construct a second factory in the Staes. It is a project worth around $17 billion. However, the company has taken forever to decide on the location. It has been exploring sites in Austin as well as in New York and California but hasn’t finalized one yet. Perhaps the absence of the de-facto leader Lee Jae-yong has hurt Samsung’s decision-making. Now that he’s out of jail on parole, the company seems to have decided where to construct the new factory. The latest report suggests that a decision could come very soon. Samsung reportedly plans to start production on the new 6-million-square-foot (557,418-sq-meter) plant by the end of 2024.
