A tax incentive request filed by Samsung Electronics was removed from the Texas Comptroller’s website, a sign that the company may have made a decision regarding the site of its $ 17 billion chip factory.

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the removal of the document relating to the Manor Independent School District indicates that the application has been withdrawn.

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

The news comes as Samsung Electronics vice president Lee Jae-yong lands at the airport in Teterboro, New Jersey. Lee told reporters he “will meet with various partners in the United States” when asked about the chip factory on Sunday before leaving Korea.

The company declined to say whether Lee would deal with the long-discussed chip project, and it has no say in the endangered document for tax incentives at Manor.

“We’re still looking at different locations in the United States,” said a company spokesperson, “and we don’t know much about the deletion because it’s the controller in Texas who decides whether to download or upload. delete some documents. ”

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

After the Manor Independent School District incentives were filed in January, the Texas chief accountant sent a letter in March to the local government informing it that Samsung Electronics was entitled to a property tax cut of at least $ 285 million. dollars over 15 years.

While the company has not released any additional new information on the site, Samsung Electronics has applied for tax relief from the Taylor Independent School District to build a factory on a site approximately 60 kilometers (37 miles) from its Austin factory. , according to a filed document. with the Texas Comptroller in July.

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

According to a document filed with the Texas Office of the Comptroller, Samsung Electronics plans to lead the way in the first quarter of 2022 with the goal of operating by the last quarter of 2024.

The company is lagging behind in a race to increase its chip production capacity, as Taiwan’s Intel and TSMC have already launched similar multibillion-dollar investment projects.

Intel recently opened two new chip manufacturing plants in Arizona, a project it will commit $ 20 billion to. TSMC already began construction of a $ 12 billion chip factory in Arizona in April and may build a chip factory in Japan jointly with Sony.

BY THE EUN-JEE PARK [[email protected]]