The investment is also one of Samsung’s big push to clench as many contract chip-making orders as possible from U.S.-based fabless chip makers, as global semiconductor chip market is poised to ride booming data center server and automotive market to new highs.
Established in 1997, the Austin semiconductor facility is one leg of Samsung’s contract chip-making or foundry businesses for mobile SoCs, operating one 12-inch fab line.
In early 2010s, Samsung had an ambitious plan to make the Austin facility a fabrication hub for the foundry business building more of fab lines, as the facility can take advantage of its geographical proximity to and from U.S. fabless chip makers that are mostly concentrated into Silicon Valley. Back then, the facility had worked as a foundry fabrication hub for Apple’s AP, application processor series.
The plan is back in the action, as global semiconductor chip market is poised for a take-off to new heights, riding on booming demand in IoT, automotive, and data center markets.
Technologically, Samsung has recently been accelerating its ramp-up to 14nm and 10nm FinFET chip processing technology having all them ready for commercial production of mobile SoCs.
The foundry chip-making business designs no chips of its own design, but just fabricates chips of other chipmakers’.
The company says it has invested more than $16 billion in its Austin facility, so far.