SEOUL / SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 29 (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) is close to finalizing construction of a $ 17 billion semiconductor plant in Williamson County, U.S. US state of Texas, said three people with knowledge of the matter.

Samsung told Reuters it was pursuing due diligence in several locations and had yet to make a decision.

The plant will manufacture advanced logic semiconductor chips and likely create around 1,800 jobs, Samsung previously said in documents filed with state officials.

One of the people said that although no decision has been made, the suburb of Austin in Williamson County was first due to the proposed subsidies as well as the likelihood of stable sources of electricity. and water.

A winter storm shutting down Samsung’s existing Austin chip plant in the first quarter caused the equivalent of 300-400 billion won ($ 254- $ 339 million) in damage to wafer production . Read more

The three people refused to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Samsung previously announced that it would begin construction on the new 6 million square feet (557,418 square meters) plant in January, with production operational by the end of 2024. read more

The plan comes at a time when the global auto industry faces a significant semiconductor shortage. Read more

“With the United States making semiconductors a strategic material, it becomes risky to focus only in Asia,” said Park Sung-soon, analyst at Seoul-based Cape Investment Securities.

“Samsung wants to be on the ground in the United States”

In the global contract chipmaking industry, Samsung is second behind TSMC (2330.TW) which had a 52.9% market share compared to Samsung’s 17.3% at the end of June, according to the supplier. TrendForce analysis.

($ 1 = 1,179 6,200 won)

Reporting by Joyce Lee and Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Christopher Cushing and Ana Nicolaci da Costa

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