Samsung Invests $220M in Austin 300mm Fab

Online staff -- Electronic News, 4/14/2006

South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. will invest $220 million to build a new fab in Austin, the company announced late Thursday.

The investment will see Samsung’s existing Austin plant, originally built as a 200mm wafer production facility, expand to 300mm.

Samsung noted that the $220 million investment is a separate overseas investment, which is not included in the $5.84 billion (5.63 trillion Korean Won) 2006 capital investment for the semiconductor business announced earlier this year.

Samsung had tipped plans to increase its foundry efforts in the United States last month, when it announced the appointment of Ana Molnar Hunter as VP of technology for its U.S. subsidiary, Samsung Semiconductor Inc. Hunter is said to be at the helm of Samsung’s foundry activity here and was hired to lead foundry customer activities in North America.

Initial construction on the 300mm expansion is slated to begin in 2006.