South Korea's Samsung is considering four sites in the US for the location of its $17 billion (€14 billion) high-tech chip plant as the global semiconductor shortage continues to cause bottlenecks in the tech and automotive sectors.
The company is currently pondering two sites in Arizona, one in New York state and another just outside Austin, Texas, according to documents filed to Texas state officials.
Read more: Automakers may have to overhaul supply chains to address chip shortage
This comes as chipmakers have called on countries affected by the shortage - such as the EU, UK and US - who are reliant on semiconductor supply chains operating out of Asia to overhaul their supply in order to deal with the crisis.
This has led to waiting lists for restocks exceeding six months as semiconductor manufacturers withhold supplies from automakers in favour of electronics companies which have seen a boom during the pandemic.
The documents detailing the potential sites are filed from February 26 and also estimate that tax abatements concerning the plant will come to roughly $1.48 billion over 20 years.
This comes a week after President Joe Biden signed an executive order vowing to look into, and help solve the semiconductor shortage.
Bloomberg first reported in January that Samsung was considering building a high-tech chip plant in the US as a way of reaching a wider American consumer base.
Samsung claims the plant will create 1,800 new jobs in the first ten years and $5.1 billion (€4.22 billion) of the budget would go into buildings and property improvement, while the remaining $9.9 billion (€8.2 billion) is set to be spent on machinery and equipment.
The plant aims to build "advanced logic devices" for Samsung's chip manufacturing business, according to the filed documents.
While Texas remains the frontrunner, Samsung is scanning the alternative sites as a contingency measure owing to the highly competitive market the chip factory is attempting to break into.
Samsung already operates a chip factory in Austin, which has been out-of-action since last month's winter storm. It is not expected to return to full capacity for some weeks.
The goal of this move is primarily a form of expansion. Some of Samsung's biggest chip customers are US-based businesses such as Tesla, Qualcomm and Nvidia.
Following the information leaks, an economic study was prepared by local consultants.
The report indicates the plant would be nearly 7 million square feet in total and will be operating to develop far more advanced chips than its rivals.
The high cost as attributed to the high-tech machinery that will be required for manufacturing.
When at full capacity, the plant will help Samsung compete with its main rivals, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Co (TSMC).
According to Bizjournal, the total cost of the plant would eclipse all major incentive-seeking business projects in Texas over the last five years combined.
It is also set to be by far the most expensive chip factory in the area, dwarfing a similar $1.1 billion (€912 million) "gigafactory" being set up by Tesla in Texas.
However, its economic impact is supposedly far below the projections for Tesla's battery gigafactory in Germany, which will have a capacity of 250GW and create 40,000 new jobs.
Read more: Tesla commences construction of world's largest battery factory plant near Berlin
Samsung estimates at least 542 new workers would have to move to Austin for employment at the plant, potentially adding as many as 1,626 new residents to the city.
The study also claims the factory will have an indirect economic output of $8.6 billion (€7.13 billion) and $7.2 billion (€5.96 billion) will spent on wages.
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