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Interesting article about semi conductor industry coming to Texas

utee what do you think of this

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/texas-will-be-home-of-semiconductor-manufacturing-amid-chip-shortage-gov-abbott

It's a lofty dream, and this new Samsung plant is a step in the right direction.  But Samsung was already producing chips in the USA, and in the Austin area specifically.  But it's mostly low-cost memory chips, not the kind of complicated microcontroller/CPU chips that are the primary cause of the shortages.  There's a reason so much semiconductor manufacturing has moved overseas, it's still cheaper to do it there, than here.

Over the last two decades, Austin alone has lost semiconductor plants from semiconductor giants like Motorola, Spansion, AMD, and TI.  All of them used to manufacture complex ICs right here in town, and now not a single one of them does.  There are only a couple of wafer fabs left, and it's all R&D now, not production.

And that's just Austin, the drain has occurred throughout Texas, and the entire United States.  It would take another couple of decades to get it back to where it was in the 90s/early 2000s.  That doesn't mean it can't be done or isn't worth trying, because I agree 100% with reducing our reliance on foreign countries for critical supply chain/infrastructure needs.  But it's going to take a lot more time, effort, and resources, than many folks might think. 

 

Samsung has been here for many years, but this certainly represents major expansion.

We've also had major Apple expansion here recently, including building a manufacturing site.  And Oracle has expanded recently.  

Obviously Elon Musk is expanding his operations in the Lone Star State as well.

All good news for sure, but I don't think anyone should get too excited about statements from the governor about bringing "all of the semiconductor manufacturing" to Texas.  

He's pro-big-business, no doubt about that.

Low taxes, modest cost of living, available work force, decent schools, lowish crime, decent weather, not a secret.

Counterpoint:  Ugly women, no beer, roaming gangs of organ harvesters that will steal your kidneys, and the inside-out green mist.

I was speaking generally about where companies like to move.  I should have mentioned transportation as well.

Counterpoint:  Ugly women, no beer, roaming gangs of organ harvesters that will steal your kidneys, and the inside-out green mist.

Might want to tell that to the Yahoos coming from the other way

I dont think Texas requires rail mass transit to attract industries

and a lot of times corporate headquarters are away from downtown in big cities

just to get away from the mess