By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Commerce Department said on Friday it was finalizing an award of up to $4.745 billion to South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and up to $1.61 billion for Texas Instruments to expand chips production.
The Samsung award is about $1.7 billion smaller than the preliminary award announced in April of up to $6.4 billion and reflects its revised smaller investment plans, the department said.
A Commerce spokesperson said the department “changed this award to align with market conditions and the scope of the investment the company is making. Samsung feels that this award represents a strong commitment to their Texas and U.S. efforts and is a sustainable long-term plan for them.”
In April, administration officials said Samsung planned to invest roughly $45 billion to build two chip production facilities, a research center and a packaging facility by 2030. On Friday, Commerce said Samsung plans to invest $37 billion and complete the projects by the end of the decade.
Samsung did not immediately comment but Samsung Electronics executive Young Hyun Jun said in a statement released by Commerce that the agreement “represents another milestone as we continue to invest and build a state-of-the-art semiconductor ecosystem in the U.S.”
Texas Instruments has pledged to investment more than $18 billion through 2029 in two new factories in Texas and one in Utah, which are expected to create 2,000 manufacturing jobs. The company is getting $900 million for its Texas operations and $700 million.
Congress in August 2022 approved a $39 billion subsidy program for U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and related components along with $75 billion in government lending authority.
Last month, Commerce finalized an award of up to $7.86 billion for Intel down from $8.5 billion announced in March after the California-based chips maker won a separate $3 billion award from the Pentagon.
Commerce has now finalized the largest awards it offered earlier this year including this week, finalizing up to $458 million for SK Hynix in Indiana. In total, Commerce has finalized over $32 billion of the over $36 billion in proposed incentives funding.
“With this investment in Samsung, the U.S. is now officially the only country on the planet that is home to all five leading-edge semiconductor manufacturers,” said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and David Gregorio)
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