The Taylor plant located in Texas would have served as one of the primary hubs for Samsung to bring advanced semiconductors to the local supply chain. Unfortunately, a string of events has harmed the Korean giant’s fortunes, and it has lagged behind TSMC severely when it comes to advancement in the semiconductor race, forcing the company to lift the investment pedal. Consequently, this action has led the U.S. to delay the subsidies that would allow the Taylor plant to become fully operational.
The Taylor plant in Texas was already committed by Samsung to receive $17 billion in funding, but subsidy negotiations have failed
Despite signing a preliminary memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the U.S. concerning subsidy payments on April 15 earlier this year, Business Korea reports that Samsung has continued to witness a delay in payments. With the ever-changing political landscape, and with the latest election won by Trump, the strategic investment plans from Samsung’s side have drastically shifted. On December 10, it was announced by the U.S. Department of Commerce that Micron would receive a subsidy of $6.165 billion, with the MOU reportedly signed on April 25.
Samsung signed the same agreement 10 days earlier, but it was yet to receive its committed amount, which puts its $17 billion investment in the Taylor plant at risk. However, the Korean technology behemoth had recently slowed down the pace at which it would inject funds into advanced foundry technology, mainly because it has experienced abysmal yields with its 3nm GAA process. It was recently reported that yields of the second-generation 3nm GAA yields are just 20 percent, and with the initial target being 70 percent, the foundry giant had lofty ambitions but could not achieve success in this area.
This reason might also be why Samsung was reported to have postponed ASML’s deliveries of cutting-edge EUV equipment for its Taylor plant, as the company has been unable to scale through this difficult obstacle. Fortunately, we must give credit to Samsung’s iron will because the latter is rumored be developing the 2nm technology codenamed ‘Ulysses,’ so only time will tell how that plan fares. As for the subsidies, these can only be guaranteed if Samsung confirms that it will continue to pour money into the Taylor plant.
News Source: Business Korea
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