Samsung proposal for expansions in Taylor total more than $167 billion and 8,200 new jobs

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Williamson County

Published on

Jul 23rd, 2022

Samsung Austin Semiconductor, a company that has already committed to building a $17 billion semiconductor facility in Taylor, could increase its investment there by tens of billions of dollars and add several thousand new jobs.

According to several new Chapter 313 applications released July 20 through the Texas comptroller’s website, Taylor ISD has approved nine separate applications for facilities at the Taylor location.

Chapter 313 agreements allow public school districts to offer tax incentives for businesses that invest in their communities, according to the Texas Comptroller’s Office.

TISD approved the Chapter 313 applications in late May, but specific information has not been released on the nature of the proposed expansion until the documents’ July 20 release.

If approved, the facilities would bring an estimated $167.6 billion in investment in addition to the $17 billion Samsung has already committed to at the Taylor site.

Additionally, the proposed expansions would bring about 8,200 net new jobs to Taylor over the next two decades.

Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell, who was instrumental in helping to broker the initial deal to bring Samsung to Taylor, said that while the proposed facilities are by no means “a done deal,” he is nevertheless excited for the possibilities.

“The thought that the largest semiconductor facility, or complex, in the world could be built right here in Williamson County—it’s just humbling,” Gravell said. “Look, we’re talking about potential. Nothing is guaranteed. There is still a lot of work to get all of these agreements across the finish line.”

Gravell said so far the effort to bring the semiconductor facility to Taylor has been a massive undertaking and credited the city’s mayor and the school district for their openness to the investment.

“Taylor continues to remind me of that book [I read] as a kid, ‘The Little Engine That Could,'” he said.

In a related development, Taylor City Council approved adding two parcels of land at the Samsung Austin Semiconductor plant site in Taylor to its two tax increment reinvestment zones that cover the area July 14.

Gravell said the U.S. Senate’s July 19 advancement of the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America Act, or CHIPS, which will boost the manufacturing industry by opening up to $52 billion in grants for the semiconductor industry, is an added bonus to the Samsung project expansion.

“I can assure you of this: If the federal CHIPS Act gets across the finish line, these projects are going to get across the finish line in Texas,” Gravell said, adding the bill still needs approval from the U.S. House of Representatives.

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