Promoting the return of chip industry to Texas to build a "semiconductor town"

Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced an ambitious blueprint on Sunday to make his state "the home of future semiconductor manufacturing" as chip shortages are affecting businesses around the world.

The governor said in an interview with the media, “In the past 10 or 20 years, the United States has made a mistake by outsourcing the production of all these basic supplies, whether it is the semiconductors that are in short supply now or the medical supplies we urgently need during the COVID-19 pandemic. In any case, we should not rely on other countries to meet our basic needs, such as semiconductors.”

He added, “That’s why Texas is actually leading the way — being the home of semiconductors. Semiconductors are in everything that people use in their daily lives, not just in your iPhone, laptop or other things around you, but also in the vehicles that are being manufactured.”

Texas has also been moving in this direction recently, attracting many companies to invest and settle down. Last month, Samsung announced that it would build a $17 billion semiconductor factory in Taylor, Texas. Abbott called it "the largest foreign direct investment in Texas ever" at a press conference. Kinam Kim, vice president and CEO of Samsung's electronic device solutions division, expects that if the Taylor factory is fully operational, it is expected to directly create more than 2,000 high-tech jobs and thousands of related jobs.

Chip shortages have been affecting the production process of the automotive industry this year. General Motors recently said it would reduce production of some trucks in North America due to the global chip shortage, and Ford Motor also cut production at several factories.