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By Shinhye Kang and Seyoon Kim
Samsung Electronics Co. has delayed mass production plans at its new chip plant in Taylor, Texas, the Seoul Economic Daily said, potentially dealing another blow to the Biden administration’s ambition to increase domestic semiconductor supplies.
Mass production at the upcoming $17 billion fab would begin in 2025, the newspaper reported, citing a speech by President Choi Siyoung of Samsung’s foundry business at an industry event in San Francisco.
Samsung previously said the factory would start production in the second half of 2024 when it announced the investment in 2021. A spokesperson said the company cannot confirm the mass production schedule right now.
The report followed an earlier decision by Samsung’s bigger rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to postpone production at its new Arizona fab to 2025 from next year due to a shortage of experienced construction workers and machine installation technicians.
Any delay at the US sites operated by the world’s two leading contract chipmakers would be a setback to US President Joe Biden’s grand plan to boost chip production on American soil to avoid future supply disruptions like the 2021 shortage that cost companies hundreds of billions in revenue.
Revisions to TSMC’s and Samsung’s plans would mean their new plants, worth tens of billions of dollars, may only come online after the US presidential election next year.
US environmental permit issues and the Biden administration’s slowness in delivering financial support have been plaguing domestic chip projects.
More than a year after Biden signed the Chips Act into law, promising $100 billion in support to new semiconductor plants in the US, his government has made one grant of only $35 million to the American subsidiary of British aerospace firm BAE Systems Plc.
