Samsung Picks Texas Site for $17 Billion Advanced US Chip Plant (yahoo.com) 75
Samsung Electronics has decided to build an advanced U.S. chip plant in Texas, a win for the Biden administration as it prioritizes supply chain security and greater semiconductor capacity on American soil. From a report: South Korea's largest company has decided on the city of Taylor, roughly 30 miles (48 kilometers) from its giant manufacturing hub in Austin, a person familiar with the matter said. Samsung and Texas officials will announce the decision Tuesday afternoon, according to people familiar with the matter, asking not to be identified because the news hasn't been made public. A Samsung representative said it hadn't made a final decision and declined further comment. Samsung is hoping to win more American clients and narrow the gap with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Its decision, which came months after de facto leader Jay Y. Lee was released from prison on parole, follows plans by TSMC and Intel Corp. to spend billions on cutting-edge facilities globally. The industry triumvirate is racing to meet a post-pandemic surge in demand that has stretched global capacity to the max, while anticipating more and more connected devices from cars to homes will require chips in future. The plant will cost Samsung $17 billion to set up, according to WSJ.
On-site electricity? (Score:4, Insightful)
I hope that price includes on-site power generation, because otherwise they are stupid to pick Texas IMO - especially with the bitcoin miners flocking there too.
(Or, maybe they plan on buying enough Texas legislators to bring some sanity to the state power regulations!)
Re:On-site electricity? (Score:4, Informative)
Of course, when you're investing $17,000,000,000 in a facility you want it to actually work, so there will be a pretty strong motive to just pile on more natural gas generation.
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The Texas power grind problem is partly due to it being independent of all other states. The rest of the continental states all interconnect.
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curious.
how long to build this mythical factory.
if anyone changes their mind.
how long would it take to move the equipment overseas
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Because they could have gotten energy from neighboring states instead of an outage. California and New York are big, they do indeed get energy from other states, even though outages still exist. It would not have solved the problem but it would have mitigate it. Texas already fought two wars of secession, it seems like they still don't consider themselves a proper part of the US. Are they going to leave again (finally leaving a country over something other than slavery this time)?
Re:On-site electricity? (Score:5, Insightful)
The technical issues with the Texas power grid are fixable, given enough time and money.
The ideological delusions that led to that grid being the dangerously under-protected thing that it is, will take a bit longer to fix.
We'll see. I certainly don't wish Samsung ill, I just think that one winter grid crash will soak up all the incentives they collected to locate there, and the second one will put them in the hole.
Re: On-site electricity? (Score:2)
OTOH since the plant is being built by Samsung we can safely assume that it will at some point burst into flames. Good thing fabs have big connections to water...
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A plant that large has a budget for on-site emergency generators. Texas' flaky powergrid is well-known and will be factored in when the plant is built.
Re:On-site electricity? (Score:5, Informative)
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In my opinion the really ugly parts are the petrochemical plants and some parts of the larger cities. And some of the people.
It's a big place and there are still lots of beautiful parts. Last I checked anyway - it's been a few years, but I'm from somewhere in the Houston area - Born on the Bayou. Some stretches of the bayous were kind of ugly too.
And we should have taken heed : Texas suffers from Soviet-style electricity distribution system [chron.com]. That article was from 2013. I used to think brief power outage
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A former employer picked a completely different state that had good access, cheap power, ready labor, and so on, plus they are on the proper side of the mountain range. That
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Where "leading the way" includes "Scapegoating for political gain".
https://arstechnica.com/tech-p... [arstechnica.com]
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So Gov. Abbot get a pass because Ars reported it? Read the source data, then figure out if ARS is all that not neutral and if that even matters.
Abbot scapegoated knowingly and intentionally.
https://www.eenews.net/assets/... [eenews.net]
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I hope that price includes on-site power generation, because otherwise they are stupid to pick Texas IMO
Having lived in tornado alley... um, I mean "the wind corridor", the existence of backup generators at the facility is nearly certain. Once the backup generators are pointed out they can be seen every where. They are often placed off to the side of the parking lot, presumably so they can reach it easily with heavy equipment in case it needs repair or replacement. In most of the US Midwest these generators run off of municipal natural gas. Some places will run the generators on LPG because that's the che
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> they are stupid to pick Texas IMO - especially with the bitcoin miners flocking there too.
I'm sure Samsung never considered the power grid in their selection process. Give them a call.
The rolling blackouts (Score:2)
Once in a hundred years (Score:2)
Awesome! (Score:2)
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Thats really forgiving (Score:2, Interesting)
Considering that texas ruined tens of millions of dollars worth of chips in their other fab
Re:Power Grid (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, that's likely because a power grid can be fixed and updated.
I don't think there is hope for California to fix its exceptionally high taxes, huge cost of living, and overregulation and other things which are slowly driving people and companies away from the state.
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California power is reliable? You must have a really short memory. I remember California pre-emptively shutting down electricity anytime the wind blows, to avoid starting wildfires.
Indeed. We're on notice for EXACTLY THAT right now. They are warning us they might turn off the power on Thursday and Friday... Effing national holiday....
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The only places where power gets shut off when there is wind is where power lines are run through forested areas - mountains and foothills because these are the only risk areas for forest fires. This is a total potentially affected population of about a million people (but not all at one time) in a state of 40 million people.
There aren't any industrial sites in the affected areas, because they would be worst places imaginable to build such sites anyway. No one is putting a fab up in the mountains, ever.
Re: Power Grid (Score:2)
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Are CA taxes really that much higher for anyone other than the wealthy when compared to Texas?
Are you serious? Texas doesn't have a state income tax.
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Are CA taxes really that much higher for anyone other than the wealthy when compared to Texas?
YES! We get hit with State, County, and (if you live in one) City taxes. Plus, you seem to be thinking that taxes are only levied on income. We have one of the highest sales taxes (set to hit 9.75% on January 1, 2022 - if memory serves). Stack property taxes on top of that. Oh, and then some of the highest YEARLY vehicle registration fees ($900 for my "company owned" vehicle).
Own a small business? Fuck you for that too, we've got some of the highest business taxes (to the point of taxing unsold invento
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I could go on and on...
And you would be lying and misrepresenting part of that time if you did.
The overall taxation in a state is a complex mix of taxes on different things, which gives rise to a game of picking the highest ones and then pretending all the other ones are high equally high. For example, the property tax rate is low in California and is adjusted at a rate below inflation so people who hold property have low tax rates. Texas for example has a higher property tax burden than California, despite having lower real esta
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That article you linked to measured a FEW things. It was, by no means, comprehensive. Didn't see any mention of our damn gasoline prices here, which are a direct result of huge state taxes and a mandated formulation for the fuel that is used by NO OTHER STATE. Since we're only talking about taxes, I'll only mention those and not get into the other half of the equation: California pumps out the highest state gas tax rate of 66.98 cents per gallon [taxfoundation.org]
Tax burdens in this state are everywhere. Like I said, fro
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Not sure why they would pick a state with a garbage power grid like Texas. California power is reliable and mostly green.
Are you on drugs? Seriously.. Are you fucking high? They turn off the power all the goddamn time. 6 full days, in just one event, last year. Plus a handful of 2-outage days.
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PSPs (Public Safety Powers shut-offs) are generally confined to high risk fire areas. If a chip plant were built in California, it would probably be in the Santa Clara valley where it's all flat, urban, and not prone to wild fires. That's where a lot of chip plants were before they moved. The biggest problem would be push-back from environmentalists who would point to the on-going problems in Mountain View from contaminated soil and such. Assuming they could get past that, the South Bay would be just fi
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Enjoying your mountain or foothill community then? Not everyone is so lucky to live there.
I live in the flats with nearly everyone, and my power has never been shut off. Only people living in forested areas are affected, for obvious reasons.
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No no. The power shut-offs, where I'm at (and yes, I am in the mountains) have extended into San Diego's suburbs. DENSELY populated areas in incorporated cities. See, the transmission lines for a lot of those places pass over our heads out here in the sticks. When they shut off the power here, they shut off everything downstream.
We import a lot of our power from the east. Democrats made sure we didn't have enough power generation in state to satisfy demand. So, we're an energy importer. The east is w
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yes rolling blackout to prevent the piss poor power grid from setting large swaths of the state on fire sounds much more reliable and green
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Not sure why they would pick a state with a garbage power grid like Texas. California power is reliable and mostly green.
What happens to that when California closes Diablo Canyon? We saw a study on that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
After Diablo Canyon closes the California electric grid won't be so "green" and reliable. I can hear it now, "But Diablo Canyon is not safe!" Okay then, shut it down now. If the power plant is not safe then shut it down already. What are you waiting for? Another Chernobyl? Are you insane? Shut it down if it is such a risk.
The reason there is no hurry to shut it down is because the powe
big news (Score:1)
The Tesla Orbit. (Score:4, Interesting)
Tesla has Chosen Samsung to build its next generation Driving Computer, Also Tesla had chosen Samsung to provide its cameras.
Much like how Detroit has a lot of companies that are not the actual Auto makers, but have these Automakers as their primary customer. I expect Tesla is attracting a lot of companies to the Austin TX area.
While I plan for my next car to be a Tesla, The Tesla company really is in a bubble, and I am in general afraid, if Tesla's bubble would pop, Austin TX will get a big hit. However it is a good sized city, it won't be as bad as some other areas, but Tesla Goes a bunch of other companies that are building there now will move out shortly after.
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Today, perhaps, but if Tesla grows and Austin becomes a Electric Car hub, of the United states, a lot of its economy will switch to that market, and if Tesla then goes bankrupt it will end up being like Detroit.
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I regret not buying the company, but I don't regret not having bought the car. It's Apple all over again for me. I don't want an iPhone, with or without wheels. I'm holding out for a more "open" EV. IIRC, Dodge just announced a major re-tooling to EVs but I haven't heard much good about their quality in other areas. After being the butt of jokes many years, Ford might be good so I'm watching to see what they'll be offering. For now though, Tesla is just ruling with the super-charging network and such.
I'm happy for Texas (Score:2)
But add in Tesla and SpaceX. These high skill jobs are going to affect the political landscape. A lot of current Texan's won't be happy.
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sorry, just a typo.
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The political landscape in Austin is already so far left of the rest of Texas this won't matter.
"a win for the Biden administration" (Score:5, Insightful)
Why would this be a win for the Biden Administration? Samsung was going to build in the US regardless, Biden will be out of office by the time production really gets rolling, and Samsung picked a state that's antagonistic to Biden. A win for Texas? Certainly. For Biden himself? That's really stretching it, and taking credit for something he really hadn't anything to do with.
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"Three of the four nuclear power reactors stayed online during the storm" -- and nuclear is supposed to be the rock solid baseline power, 24/7/365. Only lost 25% when needed the most.
You do realize that the issue was a frozen coolant pump? Kind of like what happened to all the windmills in Texas? We know how to protect windmills and nuclear power plants against the cold so this failure is no more representative of nuclear power than the frozen windmills in Texas proves windmills unreliable in the cold. Do you want to hold Texas as an example for wind power? Do you? That means a 100% failure rate for wind power and a 25% failure rate for nuclear power. Now, which one would you choo
In defense of Joe Biden (Score:1)
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Why would this be a win for the Biden Administration? Samsung was going to build in the US regardless
Perception and marketing. Presidents get both wins and blames for things completely irrelevant to them all the time. This one is a win, Biden is president when it was announced, it was announced that it includes jobs, it was announced that it includes investment. Yay look at our president and how *he* is making America grea... err no malarkey or whatever the **** today's catchphrase is.
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cause when samsung takes all the money and fucks off like what foxconn did the next guy is the looser, not him ... its really not that hard
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Why would this be a win for the Biden Administration?
You must be new to politics. Practically every politician will take credit for anything good happening in his term, and blame someone else for anything bad happening in his term. The same applies to CEO and most managers, too.
It would be a wonder if Biden didn't claim credit, or give Trump the credit, for anything good that has happened after his inauguration.
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No one outside of slashdot knows that. It's a great talking point. "I brought Samsung to the US."
Patent Troll (Score:1)
Representative in Congress (Score:2)