For tech lovers, people following chips or just wanting their next iPhone to have a slightly higher Made in the U.S.A. label, the last few years have been insane. The American semiconductor industry, which used to be the leader of the world, lost its share of manufacturing from 37% in 1990 to only 12% by 2021. The good news is that the trend is reversing, and Texas is front and center.
In the good old days, American firms such as Texas Instruments and Intel essentially developed the underpinnings of contemporary computing. Today, America continues to design almost half of the globe’s chips, but the majority of the actual production takes place abroad in countries such as Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore. That’s exposed America to vulnerabilities, particularly with supply chain interruptions and heightened geopolitical tensions. What’s the answer? Construct fabs here at home.
Texas is becoming the new center for this resurgence. Why Texas? It’s got open spaces, water access from Lake Texoma, and a state legislature that wants to bring in investment with tax incentives and tax breaks. Sherman, Austin, Taylor, and Richardson are becoming the focal point of America’s chip comeback.
Apple is taking the lead with a $100 billion investment as part of its broader $600 billion American Manufacturing Program. Apple will add 20,000 employees, grow its R&D and AI staff, and collaborate with large chipmakers such as Corning, Coherent, GlobalWafers America, Texas Instruments, Samsung, GlobalFoundries, Amkor, and Broadcom. Apple’s new Houston server plant is already cranking out test units, and Sherman’s supply chain is receiving a significant boost from TI and GlobalWafers. Even the rare earth magnets within AirPods are coming from MP Materials in Fort Worth.
Texas Instruments is going all in on a $60 billion megaproject: four fabs in Sherman, one in Richardson, and two more in Lehi, Utah. While these aren’t the ultra-advanced 2nm chips used in the latest smartphones, TI’s focus on analog and embedded chips (running on 45 to 130 nanometer nodes) powers everything from cars to appliances to AI servers. Their new 300mm wafer fabs will allow more output, lower costs, and a chance to rebuild market share lost during the chip shortages of recent years.
Samsung, too, is expanding in Texas. In addition to its phones, the firm is spending $17 billion on a fab in Taylor to produce up to ten fabs there by 2042. The Taylor campus will make chips for 5G, artificial intelligence, and computing, and Apple is already pre-booked as a customer. In the meantime, Taiwan-based world-leading chipmaker TSMC is also planting its flag in Arizona with a whopping $165 billion investment and a factory already churning out chips for Apple.
Politics plays a huge role in the tale. Ex-President Donald Trump slapped a 100% tariff on U.S.-nonmade chips—a measure that forced most firms to announce new domestic investments. Nvidia, Micron, and Texas Instruments have each committed billions to bringing more chip manufacturing back home. Additionally, the federal CHIPS Act provides $53 billion in funding, and Texas has proposed its own with almost $1.4 billion in incentives for new fabs and research facilities.
The chip supply chain is expanding quickly. The supply chain for Apple has extended from glass factories in Kentucky to chip-packaging plants in Arizona. GlobalFoundries is expanding its production in New York, Coherent is increasing the production of laser components in Sherman, and Applied Materials is building chip equipment in Austin. The number of jobs that will be affected is huge: Apple claims that its plan will be able to create 450,000 jobs in the United States, while the fabs of TI can generate 60,000 more. The population of Sherman is increasing quickly, and the local authorities are calling it the “Silicon Prairie.”
So what does this mean for your phone, your automobile, or your go-to AI program? It means more chips will be made in America, supply chains will be less vulnerable, and the American tech sector will be more robust and independent. Texas is no longer the Lone Star State—it is on its way to being the brightest star in the semiconductor world.