By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Commerce Department said Friday it was finalizing an award of up to $4.745 billion to South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and up to $1.61 billion for Texas Instruments to expand chips production.
The Samsung award is about $1.7 billion smaller than the preliminary award announced in April of up to $6.4 billion and reflects its revised smaller investment plans, the department said.
A Commerce spokesperson said Friday the department “changed this award to align with market conditions and the scope of the investment the company is making. Samsung feels that this award represents a strong commitment to their Texas and U.S. efforts and is a sustainable long-term plan for them.”
In April, administration officials said Samsung planned to invest roughly $45 billion in building and expanding its Texas facilities through the end of the decade. On Friday, Commerce said Samsung plans to invest $37 billion in the coming years.
Samsung did not immediately comment.
Texas Instruments has pledged to investment more than $18 billion through 2029 in two new factories in Texas and one in Utah, which are expected to create 2,000 manufacturing jobs.
Congress in August 2022 approved a $39 billion subsidy program for U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and related components along with $75 billion in government lending authority.
Commerce has now finalized the largest awards it offered earlier this year including earlier this week finalizing up to $458 million for SK Hynix in Indiana.
“With this investment in Samsung, the U.S. is now officially the only country on the planet that is home to all five leading-edge semiconductor manufacturers,” said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
