TAYLOR, Texas — On Tuesday, Gov. Greg Abbott announced the selection of Taylor, Texas, for a new chip-making facility from Samsung.
According to city documents, this $17 billion plant will be built off of County Road 401, just south of Downtown Taylor and right by Taylor High School.
Rumors started swirling about Samsung building the new plant in Central Texas all the way back in January. Since then, the company has stayed tight-lipped, saying it was still considering building in New York or Arizona as well.
Local leaders have pulled out all the stops to lure Samsung to expand in Central Texas.
The City of Taylor and Williamson County both approved millions of dollars in tax incentives back in September, and Taylor ISD approved more incentives this month.
So, outside of the big tax breaks, why else might the company have chosen Taylor?
Samsung has been in Central Texas for nearly 25 years. The company started producing chips in Austin in 1997 when the first factory opened.
The company's first incentive deal with the City of Austin came in 2005. There was a $4 billion investment from Samsung and, for the city, there was $62.8 million dollars in tax incentives.
Meanwhile, the company's first deal with Travis County goes back to 2008, with a $13 billion investment from the company and $72 million in tax breaks from Travis County.
Both of those deals are still in place today.
Since then, a lot of manufacturing companies have moved to Central Texas, or at least expanded operations recently. Manufacturing makes up 13% of the state's economic output, but experts say there's already a lot of demand for manufacturing employees.
Samsung's new plant could be up and running by the year 2025, the construction of which could create up to 10,000 jobs. Once completed, the plant itself could create 1,800 jobs.
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