Samsung to build $17B chip factory

[EphraimK]

Summary

 Samsung announces their plans to build a Computer chip factory to create chips among the global chip shortage. It will be located 30 miles from Austin, TX in a town called "Taylor". Groundbreaking will be next year, and chip production will be started in 2024 (according to Samsung).

 

This building will be 2.4 Million Square Feet.

 

Samsung also claims this will provide 2,000 jobs to Texas citizens.

 

Quotes

Quote

The facility will be located in Taylor, where Samsung already has a production facility. It's a town some 30 miles from Austin, with a population of about 16,000 people. The electronics giant will break ground next year, and chip production is expected to begin in 2024.

 

My thoughts

 I think they chose Texas again because they already hold a large presence there.

 

Sources

CNET: https://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-to-build-17-billion-chip-factory-in-texas/

CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/24/tech/samsung-texas-chip-factory-hnk-intl/index.html

 

[GDRRiley]

kinda surprised texas got picked given how the power outage earlier in the year harmed their existing fabs so much.

they lost almost 2 months of production and 250-350 million lost in damaged wafers and when they started up they were only about to reach 90% production

[AndreiArgeanu]

5 minutes ago, GDRRiley said:

kinda surprised texas got picked given how the power outage earlier in the year harmed their existing fabs so much.

they lost almost 2 months of production and 250-350 million lost in damaged wafers and when they started up they were only about to reach 90% production

Who knows, maybe they'll build their own power source, like solar panels, place them on top of the roof of the factory like Tesla did with some of theirs, would be good for marketing too since they can claim they're more environmentally friendly. It could also save money but don't quote on that I have no idea how or if they can offset the costs of the solar panels over time.

[Commodus]

43 minutes ago, EDKTech said:

Summary

 Samsung announces their plans to build a Computer chip factory to create chips among the global chip shortage. It will be located 30 miles from Austin, TX in a town called "Taylor". Groundbreaking will be next year, and chip production will be started in 2024 (according to Samsung).

 

This building will be 2.4 Million Square Feet.

 

Samsung also claims this will provide 2,000 jobs to Texas citizens.

 

Quotes

 

My thoughts

 I think they chose Texas again because they already hold a large presence there.

 

Sources

CNET: https://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-to-build-17-billion-chip-factory-in-texas/

CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/24/tech/samsung-texas-chip-factory-hnk-intl/index.html

 

I agree, they likely chose Texas out of convenience more than anything. It's helpful if the plants have to share parts or staff. Let's just hope Samsung builds a whole lot of solar power so that it doesn't deal with power outages!

 

What I wonder is who the primary customer(s) will be. The running joke is that Samsung's biggest parts customer is its biggest rival.

[IkeaGnome]

2 minutes ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

no idea how or if they can offset the costs of the solar panels over time.

Tax incentives and price hikes would pay for that one. 

[StDragon]

50 minutes ago, GDRRiley said:

kinda surprised texas got picked given how the power outage earlier in the year harmed their existing fabs so much.

they lost almost 2 months of production and 250-350 million lost in damaged wafers and when they started up they were only about to reach 90% production

I'm not happy that my state (Texas) is also looking to foster Crypto mining here. In fact, I'm 100% against it. The growth of this state is pushing the grid to the limits, and I've personally seen rolling brownouts in new developments attributed to people purchasing more Teslas. Certain municipalities don't have the substations upgraded or created to keep up with this duo dynamic going on.

 

OTOH, the Tesla Gigafactory will aid Elon in providing a battery bank to smooth out the grid supply. He will pay for it by purchasing electricity at its cheapest point in the day, then sell back when prices rise. 

[GDRRiley]

2 hours ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

Who knows, maybe they'll build their own power source, like solar panels, place them on top of the roof of the factory like Tesla did with some of theirs, would be good for marketing too since they can claim they're more environmentally friendly. It could also save money but don't quote on that I have no idea how or if they can offset the costs of the solar panels over time.

solar isn't going to cover what they'll end up using in power, when you measure loads in tens if not hundreds of MW its kinda hard to built a solar farm to fit your needs

[Ydfhlx]

On 11/26/2021 at 8:06 PM, AndreiArgeanu said:

Who knows, maybe they'll build their own power source, like solar panels

Solar panels are not going to help in winter. Maybe the newly designed modular nuclear reactors, although I highly doubt.

[Mihle]

1 hour ago, Ydfhlx said:

Solar panels are not going to help in winter. Maybe the newly designed modular nuclear reactors, although I highly doubt.

Well, it can help, but less.

[Fasterthannothing]

2 hours ago, Ydfhlx said:

Solar panels are not going to help in winter. Maybe the newly designed modular nuclear reactors, although I highly doubt.

Personally I think the push should be for nuclear power not solar but anyway as for the article in question. It's not really surprising they would pick TX it's the new silicone valley. 

[atxcyclist]

I work about 10 miles from this site, Taylor is just a little town surrounded by other little towns and farmland. I cannot imagine what this will mean for the town, probably a lot of new houses in the area.

 

Fun facts: Several fairly popular movies have been filmed in and around Taylor, and one notable resident is Tex Avery, the mind behind Looney Tunes and its characters.

[Donut417]

On 11/26/2021 at 1:08 PM, EDKTech said:

think they chose Texas again because they already hold a large presence there.

Texas is ran by a certain "Political" party that doesnt believe in regulations. As such its much cheaper to operate a business there. Not trying to bring politics in to this but thats the reason why all these business are moving from California to Texas and why companies like Samsung would consider building a new factory there. 

 

On 11/26/2021 at 1:55 PM, GDRRiley said:

kinda surprised texas got picked given how the power outage earlier in the year harmed their existing fabs so much.

they lost almost 2 months of production and 250-350 million lost in damaged wafers and when they started up they were only about to reach 90% production

They can build their own power station if they had to. My mom has a friend who's husband works in the power house at one of the Ford plants in our general area. Because Ford cant afford to loose power either. The Ford Wayne Assembly plant has quite a few solar panels as well. 

5 hours ago, Ydfhlx said:

Solar panels are not going to help in winter. Maybe the newly designed modular nuclear reactors, although I highly doubt.

Nuclear reactors are heavily regulated in this country. The NRC would have to approve such a project and the public MUST be on board. Let me tell you, US citizens DONT WANT Nuclear power. Doesnt matter how safe reactors are. No one wants Nuclear power. The accident in Japan set Nuclear power back decades. Yeah it was a natural disaster, but it doesnt matter. People always look at the major disasters and never look at the success's of Nuclear energy. 

[StDragon]

16 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Nuclear reactors are heavily regulated in this country. The NRC would have to approve such a project and the public MUST be on board. Let me tell you, US citizens DONT WANT Nuclear power. Doesnt matter how safe reactors are. No one wants Nuclear power. The accident in Japan set Nuclear power back decades. Yeah it was a natural disaster, but it doesnt matter. People always look at the major disasters and never look at the success's of Nuclear energy. 

^This.

 

This nation could also reprocess spent nuclear fuel, but we don't do so for geo-political reasons (plutonium makes for good fuel, but also nuclear warheads too). Instead, it's safer to just bury the stuff in the ground for fear of creating another Cold War via increasing nuclear weapon stockpiles.

Texas however does have the largest wind power production that's over the 20 GW mark. More is being added, but a large problem with that is it's very unreliable for base-load as is solar.

The future would be space-based solar arrays where the energy could be beamed with a rectenna and aligned with a pilot light (laser). SpaceX could provide the heavy lift capability. Ironically however, Elon poo pooed the idea some time ago. Yet, if anyone could pull that off, he could.

[Donut417]

7 minutes ago, StDragon said:

This nation could also reprocess spent nuclear fuel, but we don't do so for geo-political reasons (plutonium makes for good fuel, but also nuclear warheads too). Instead, it's safer to just bury the stuff in the ground for fear of creating another Cold War via increasing nuclear weapon stockpiles.

Ive read the Thorium reactors could be much safer and not produce Nuclear weapons grade materials. But dont see anyone building them. While Solar and Wind are good, as you stated they are unreliable. Nuclear is the only good way to go for a good source. At least until they figure out Fusion power. 

 

9 minutes ago, StDragon said:

SpaceX could provide the heavy lift capability. Ironically however, Elon poo pooed the idea some time ago. Yet, if anyone could pull that off, he could.

I think the problem is, we have too much junk up there. They need to clean some of that out. Even if such a power source would be possible, it could be clobbered by all the crap we have up there and be rendered useless. 

[StDragon]

4 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

I think the problem is, we have too much junk up there. They need to clean some of that out. Even if such a power source would be possible, it could be clobbered by all the crap we have up there and be rendered useless. 

Anti-sat weapons by our adversaries have made that point abundantly clear.

 

The problem with space-based solar is that it would be too successful! I know that sounds silly, but it's true. Once the industry starts (as with wind blade construction), it will keep on producing and SpaceX could keep on heavy-lifting. But here's the problem, society would be too dependent on it because it would be so reliable 24/7.....right up until a CME (Carrington Event) literally fries sats in orbit thus wiping the supply from the grid; permanently!

So basically, have spare on the other side of the planet just in case. Go big or go home

[Quackers101]

nuclear silicon wafers, with a extra taste of... donuts?

Are we also going to allow the wafers to be armed as well?

 

but mostly wonder about what tech do they think about adding in these spaces.

[Donut417]

38 minutes ago, Quackers101 said:

Are we also going to allow the wafers to be armed as well?

I mean its Texas. 

[mr moose]

That's a very short turn around for a new factory, have they already got a guarantee for tooling and silicon supply?

 

On 11/27/2021 at 6:06 AM, AndreiArgeanu said:

Who knows, maybe they'll build their own power source, like solar panels, place them on top of the roof of the factory like Tesla did with some of theirs, would be good for marketing too since they can claim they're more environmentally friendly. It could also save money but don't quote on that I have no idea how or if they can offset the costs of the solar panels over time.

The crisis in Texas was caused by severe weather which saw wind, solar, and gas fail.    Solar doesn't work when its not sunny, turbines couldn't operate when the blades are frozen and gas couldn't get to the plants because the pipes were frozen.    The solution is nuclear because it doesn't need  fuel supply line like gas or coal, doesn't stop when its is overcast or not windy.  Shame it is so heavily regulated that it financially can't compete because it kicks arse on safety and environmental arguments. 

[jagdtigger]

6 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Yeah it was a natural disaster,

No it wasnt, it was sheer incompetence. They simply ignored the possibility of tsunamis. If we look back at nuclear accidents pretty much all of them were caused by one thing: incompetence.

[PocketNerd]

On 11/26/2021 at 11:08 AM, Commodus said:

What I wonder is who the primary customer(s) will be. The running joke is that Samsung's biggest parts customer is its biggest rival.

Which is probably the absolute best position to be in, cause no matter what Samsung wins!

[StDragon]

8 hours ago, jagdtigger said:

No it wasnt, it was sheer incompetence. They simply ignored the possibility of tsunamis. If we look back at nuclear accidents pretty much all of them were caused by one thing: incompetence.

It was an unforeseen edge-case of failure. The backup generators worked to keep the cooling pumps active. What happened was when the water flooded the diesel generators ingested water and hydrolocked the engines; they physically bent and broke the piston connecting rods. Big "oops"

[leadeater]

On 11/27/2021 at 7:55 AM, GDRRiley said:

kinda surprised texas got picked given how the power outage earlier in the year harmed their existing fabs so much.

they lost almost 2 months of production and 250-350 million lost in damaged wafers and when they started up they were only about to reach 90% production

If I were to guess I would say facility power is part of the project and thus shouldn't be an issue. Who knows, but if I were spending that much on a new facility and had those types of power requirements including power generation, or at the very least medium term backup power, would be part of it.

[leadeater]

15 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Ive read the Thorium reactors could be much safer and not produce Nuclear weapons grade materials. But dont see anyone building them

Starting to become a thing now, couple being built in the US now, at commercial ones that will provide power. Will have to check back in 10 years how the perception and market has changed. Problem with "nuclear" is better doesn't mean will get used, not even "safer". There is a very strong "go with what we know, innovation is dangerous", which in a way and to be fair is true but practically side lining nuclear power is going to lead to massive land usage waste building giant solar farm and wind turbines. I love the idea of wide spread residential solar and I have no problem with large solar facilities in deserts and arid land but there are also large scale solar in arable land too which in my opinion is immensely stupid.

[jagdtigger]

1 hour ago, StDragon said:

It was an unforeseen edge-case of failure.

On an island with nothing but water around it it is not an edge case, and definitely not unforeseen.

[leadeater]

6 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

On an island with nothing but water around it it is not an edge case, and definitely not unforeseen.

Sure the sea walls could have been higher, were recommended to be increased in height, but the real problem was putting the generators at ground and below ground level. Had they been raised off the ground above flood height cooling power would never have been lost and the incident avoided. Hindsight is really simple, tsunami's are very rear especially of that size and losing all backup power to what was supposed to be a protected site is a design failure easily made.