Samsung files paperwork for $17 billion Austin chip plant

Samsung's plan to set up a major chip plant in Austin, Texas is inching closer to being greenlit. Reuters reports Samsung filed paperwork with Texas state officials that shed further details about the plan.

The South Korean electronics giant set its sight on Austin to build a 7 million square feet (650,000 square meters) chip plant on a 640-acre (259-hectare) plot of land that the firm already owns. The total investment is estimated to be $17 billion.

Samsung's plan isn't final yet but if everything goes right construction could begin in Q2 2021:

Samsung said in its filings that if Austin is selected, the company would break ground on the site in the second quarter of this year and that the plant will become operational in the third quarter of 2023.

These days, most contract chip production happens in Taiwan and South Korea, but there's a renewed push to bring back manufacturing to the US. Last year, TSMC revealed plans to build a $12 billion chip plant in Arizona.