Document removal suggests Samsung Electronics will pick Taylor, Texas

Samsung Electronics' chip factory in Austin, Texas [SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS]

An application for tax incentives filed by Samsung Electronics has been removed from the Texas Comptroller’s website, a sign the company may have made a decision about the site for its $17 billion chip plant.

Citing local sources, the Austin Business Journal said that the removal of the document related to the Manor Independent School District indicates that the application has been withdrawn.

For locations scouted in Texas, that leaves Taylor, where an application has already been filed for Chapter 313 incentives, which would lower taxes for the facility. New York and Arizona have also been mentioned as possible locations for the chip foundry.

The news comes as Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong touches down at Teterboro Airport, New Jersey. Lee told reporters that he will “meet with various partners in the United States” when asked about the chip plant on Sunday before he left Korea.

The company would not comment on whether Lee will be dealing with the long-discussed chip project, and it has nothing to say about the vanishing document for tax incentives in Manor.

“We are still considering different locations in the U.S.,” a company spokesperson said, “And we don’t know much about the removal, because it is the Texas Comptroller that decides to upload or remove certain documents.”

While the two other states remain possibilities, the Texas site has the advantage of being close to an existing facility in Austin.

After the filing in January for incentives related to the Manor Independent School District, the chief accountant of Texas sent a letter in March to the local government advising it that Samsung Electronics is entitled to a property tax cut of at least $285 million over 15 years.

While the company has reported no new additional information about the site, Samsung Electronics applied for a tax break from the Taylor Independent School District to build a factory on a site some 60 kilometers (37 miles) from its Austin factory, according to a document filed with the Texas Comptroller in July.

Measuring 4.8 million square meters (51.7 million square feet) in size, the proposed facility is four times larger than the company’s existing chip plant in the state.

According to a document filed with the Texas Comptroller office, Samsung Electronics plans to break ground in the first quarter of 2022 with the aim of operating by the final quarter of 2024.

The company is lagging behind in a race to ramp up production capacity for chips as Intel and Taiwan’s TSMC have already moved on similar multi-billion-dollar investment projects.

Intel recently broke ground on two new chip-making plants in Arizona, a project to which it will be committing $20 billion. TSMC started construction of a $12 billion chip factory in Arizona in April and may build a chip plant in Japan jointly with Sony.

BY PARK EUN-JEE [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]