When it comes to smartphones and the United States, the first name that comes to mind is undoubtedly Apple. But it’s not the apple brand that we’re talking about today. Rather, it is its historical competitor who has managed to do well.
The South Korean firm has just won funding of 4.74 billion dollars from the Department of Commerce. With these funds, Samsung is committed to opening semiconductor production factories in Uncle Sam’s country. Concretely, two factories should see the light of day in the town of Taylor in Texas. Part of this sum should also be allocated to the already active Austin factory, still in Texas.
If this financing is very good news for Samsung, the Asian company was hoping for even more. It was in fact expected to receive $6.4 billion from the state CHIPS (Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors) fund.
Samsung ahead of Apple
The construction of these two new factories responds to very specific challenges, both for Samsung and for the United States. As for the South Korean firm, it hopes to compete with TSMC on a global scale with a state-of-the-art Texas-based R&D center.
For the moment, the Taiwanese manufacturer has not set up in the United States and although a factory project in Arizona is under discussion, it is much less advanced than that of Samsung. As a reminder, TSMC supplies many American companies, including Apple for iPhones, iPads and Macs.
A sensitive geopolitical question
For the United States, the presence of a semiconductor producing factory on its soil is vital. During the shortage of these computer components in 2020, the world realized the importance of these small pieces of silicon. It was during this period that the CHIPS fund was created, to respond to requests for financing from chip producing companies.
This geopolitical question does not only concern the United States; other regions of the world are working to have semiconductor producing factories on their soil. This is particularly the case for Europe. Today, several projects exist on the old continent, particularly in Germany.
Last October we nevertheless learned of the “suspension” of the Intel mega-factory project and, two weeks later, that of Wolfspeed whose financing is estimated at $2 billion.
