Samsung Revives US Manufacturing Initiative with Investment in Taylor 2nm Facility
Samsung is re-initiating substantial investments into its semiconductor plant in Taylor, Texas. It is primarily linked to re-launch carrying out the 'Made in USA' manufacturing feature and the interest pretty much increasing from US customers, including Tesla, to Samsung regarding its advanced 2nm process.
Strategic Moves in The Taylor Plant
This renewed investment involves a combination of strategic steps directly related to the preparations of the plant towards advanced node production:
- Staff Placement: Staff earmarked for deployment in the Taylor plant in two phases, commencing by September and November respectively.
- New Leadership: A new Head of Foundry has been appointed at Taylor, which is indicative of the increasing prominence of the plant as an independent entity of Samsung's US operations.
- 2nm Prep: Currently, the facility installs new foundry equipment in preparation for manufacturing on 2nm nodes.
- The deal has been further boosted greatly by a deal with Elon Musk's Tesla to manufacture its AI6 chips, a project that must be done at the Taylor site with the employment of the 2nm node.
From the Plans of 4nm Now Towards a 2nm Future
In effect, setting Taylor to initial operations was making it a mass production manufacturing site for 4nm-not fulfilled, though. And now, Samsung has focused its resources on building up a 2nm line for its foundry. By the end of this year, 12-inch wafers, roughly between 16,000 and 17,000 units, are expected to be produced by said target developed making this foundry the largest.
The high volume manufacturing (HVM) target is held out for the end of 2026 or early 2027, depending on the stabilization of SF2 (Samsung Foundry 2nm) yield rates.
Catching up with Competition in the US Semiconductor Market
Driving Taylor toward this ambition will help Samsung carry some of the biggest names in the US market such as NVIDIA, Apple and AMD. However, the competition will be quite severe. Both TSMC and Intel are also building advanced node manufacturing facilities in the US, therefore a very competitive picture is arising in securing major contracts.
