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Samsung plans $17B chip plant in Taylor, Texas

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Re: Samsung plans $17B chip plant in Taylor, Texas

#241

Post by killjoywashere »

wonderwonder wrote: post #220
josaka wrote: post #69

After the TX grid failure last winter, it's probably not a coincidence that Samsung's new facility will be near ERCOT's operation center in Taylor, which manages the TX grid, and will likely be the last load to shed when the grid's stressed. Used to work in the Austin fab, and the amount of money lost per minute in a power failure is mind boggling. The tax breaks Taylor offered ($314m) are not that different from wha…

They are setting up fairly close to Tesla. Wonder if they are working on a deal for Tesla to provide battery backup. Interestingly enough Austin, TX appears to be rapidly approaching SF status as a tech hub and may soon surpass them. Its an interesting thing to watch and really gives insight into how politics and taxes affect business and growth.

> Interestingly enough Austin, TX appears to be rapidly approaching SF status as a tech hub and may soon surpass them.

Uh, maybe it's time to take a drive through Austin, but that was a pretty sleepy little college town 10 years ago. Most of my family lives in the central Texas region (San Antonio, San Carlos, College Station), and I presently live in Mountain View. I have a hard time believing SF-scale infrastructure was built that fast.

As an example, here's the UT wind tunnel: http://research.ae.utexas.edu/floimlab/Mach5.php

Here's the Moffett wind tunnel complex: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/multimedia/images/2005/nfa...

Re: Samsung plans $17B chip plant in Taylor, Texas

#242

Post by throw10920 »

jason-phillips wrote: post #103
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you get into chipmaking, really? Is it a Physics degree, or is it a Computer Science degree with just lots of on-the-job training?

It depends on what you want to do. If you want to work on one of the processes in the fab (metrology, chemical vapor deposition, photolithography, etc) then an engineering degree (especially chemical engineering) may be your best bet. If you want to design the chip architecture, then computer engineering is the degree path you want. Samsung has their own chip design subsidiary in Austin too, over on Highway 360 in we…

I know a few people who went to university near a large Intel campus that was always hiring.

These people told me that if you got hired into Intel, it was almost always as a design verification & validation engineer, and that getting an actual design (architecture) job was near impossible (especially as a recent graduate, even with an MS).

Is it the same for Samsung?

Re: Samsung plans $17B chip plant in Taylor, Texas

#243

Post by shmatt »

nodicksplease wrote: post #223
wonderwonder wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are setting up fairly close to Tesla. Wonder if they are working on a deal for Tesla to provide battery backup. Interestingly enough Austin, TX appears to be rapidly approaching SF status as a tech hub and may soon surpass them. Its an interesting thing to watch and really gives insight into how politics and taxes affect business and growth.

care to share any sources? or did you just make this up?

Yes, they made it up

According to wikipedia/some google-fu SV has just above double the high tech jobs as Austin

Re: Samsung plans $17B chip plant in Taylor, Texas

#244

Post by throw10920 »

JavaBatman wrote: post #11

I am still amazed by the shortsightedness of how these critical and strategic goods are off-shore. No wonder why the supply chains are fragile and not robust. It should be illegal for strategic goods and components such as chips and semiconductors to be produced offshore. Yes, it will raise prices in the short and medium-term, but it will make the domestic economy and manufacturing sector more robust, resilient to su…

> We need a true industrial policy and state capitalist system similar to what Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore have.

You forgot China. If you institute strong controls over industry in a country the size (and culture) of America, you won't get Japan, you'll get China, and the corresponding anti-features of their system (such as authoritarianism in general, and companies acting as agents of the state in particular).

Very few people want that, and certainly not me.

There are far better ways to build robust manufacturing systems than complete government control.

Re: Samsung plans $17B chip plant in Taylor, Texas

#245

Post by xxpor »

kragen wrote: post #239
missedthecue wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US imports massive amounts of silicon (from countries like Russia no less). We do not have our own supply. And no, rare earths are not contained in semiconductors specifically, but I assumed the parent comment wants to onshore more production than solely semiconductors, and rare earths are needed for lots of essential electronics.

Yes, the US has its own supply of silicon. Toledo, Ohio, was called the "glass center of the world" in the 01930s because of the combination of cheap energy (natural gas), low freight rates, and the high-quality silicon-dioxide sand mined at Silica, Ohio, twelve miles to the west (10.2307/141587). The US is the world's leading producer of silica, producing about 100 million tonnes per year and exporting 4 million ( h…

They don't use silica sand to make semiconductors, they use quartzite. Which isn't available near near Toledo. There's plenty of other places in the US, but first you have to actually know the right mineral to look for.

Re: Samsung plans $17B chip plant in Taylor, Texas

#246

Post by summerlight »

peter_retief wrote: post #219

Texas is the new choice for multinationals, they seem to be doing something right or is it that some states are a mess?

I think it's the latter. Over the last decade, CA (especially northern) has demonstrated a spectacular failure on meeting housing demands. TX is the second largest economy so it's a quite natural to become the new candidate, especially in the context that NY has been suffering from a similar housing issue.

Re: Samsung plans $17B chip plant in Taylor, Texas

#247

Post by tomatofarmer »

trasz wrote: post #104
politician wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’re moving fabs to the West to defuse a potential hostage situation where China strangles the global supply of semiconductors. The UFO releases are either about telling China that we are aware of and can track their surveillance assets, showing China our new highly advanced classified assets, or else demonstrating the superiority of our current Air Force assets. Both activities serve to dissuade the Chinese militar…

Except that 1. It’s the west (in particular the US) that is strangling the semiconductor supplies in order to hamper Chinese industry, and 2. China is completely uninterested in military aggression, as opposed to US, which just finished a war and is probably looking for another one.

> China is completely uninterested in military aggression

Except they increasingly fly their fighter jets in Taiwan's airspace. And regularly engage in deadly border disputes with India. And continue to conduct cyberwarfare.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58794094

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020%E2%80%932021_China%E2%80%...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberwarfare_by_China

Re: Samsung plans $17B chip plant in Taylor, Texas

#248

Post by RandallBrown »

fovc wrote: post #200

Why do big investments get tax breaks but not smaller ones? Is there a rationale other than ~~corruption~~ political power having great economies of scale?

I think that small businesses already get tax breaks compared to big businesses.

In a lot of cases I'm sure their profits are small enough they don't pay any taxes at all.

Re: Samsung plans $17B chip plant in Taylor, Texas

#249

Post by finiteseries »

micromacrofoot wrote: post #163
rllearneratwork wrote: post #76

with Tesla, SpaceX, Samsung and other tech investing this heavy in Texas, when/will it surpass CA as a tech powerhouse of the future?

Can they get similar talent with draconian social policies like abortion bans? If I suggested moving to Texas my wife would (rightfully) tell me to go fuck myself. There's been a lot of talk about Texas "turning blue" over the past few years and I wonder if these companies either moving their operations or building new plants there could be the tipping point.

Ask your European colleagues how their decision to move somewhere with draconian social policies went.

Re: Samsung plans $17B chip plant in Taylor, Texas

#250

Post by kodah »

wonderwonder wrote: post #220
josaka wrote: post #69

After the TX grid failure last winter, it's probably not a coincidence that Samsung's new facility will be near ERCOT's operation center in Taylor, which manages the TX grid, and will likely be the last load to shed when the grid's stressed. Used to work in the Austin fab, and the amount of money lost per minute in a power failure is mind boggling. The tax breaks Taylor offered ($314m) are not that different from wha…

They are setting up fairly close to Tesla. Wonder if they are working on a deal for Tesla to provide battery backup. Interestingly enough Austin, TX appears to be rapidly approaching SF status as a tech hub and may soon surpass them. Its an interesting thing to watch and really gives insight into how politics and taxes affect business and growth.

I don't know about SV status but I think it's getting there. Other tech hubs still extract graduates out of the state at an alarming rate and last I checked compensation wasn't close to SV (even with normalization for cost of living). It'll take a good bit of time to undo SV but the ball is rolling.
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