On a 1,200-acre plot of land in a small town 30 miles north of Austin, Texas, South Korean giant Samsung is spending $17 billion to build a semiconductor fabrication plant.
Four hours north by car, in the city of Sherman, Texas Instruments is at the early stages of a $30 billion project, the largest new chip investment in Texas.
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It’s not by accident.
As geopolitical tension between China and Taiwan drives chipmakers to turn to the U.S. for manufacturing, Texas has emerged as the place to do business, thanks to a combination of low taxes and new subsidies.
Since the $52 billion CHIPS and Science Act was first introduced in 2020, more than 50 new U.S. semiconductor projects have been announced totaling over $210 billion. More than $61 billion of that’s in Texas, with six projects expected to create more than 8,000 jobs.
“Because we have ports, because we have access to materials, because of our low cost of doing business, we are best situated to lead this next generation of chip manufacturing,” Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told CNBC in an interview in April.
In June, Abbott signed the Texas CHIPS Act into law. It set aside $1.4 billion for chip companies to manufacture in the Lone Star State and for universities willing to build related research and development centers.
When it comes to new chip investments, Arizona leads with a $20 billion fab coming from Intel and a $40 billion site from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s top advanced chipmaker. However, Texas has the highest number of total fabs and is a close second for new investments.
CNBC visited Texas for a rare look inside the clean rooms of three huge chip fabs, getting a glimpse of the manufacturing heart of the plant, where workers don special suits to protect the tiny microchips from skin particles and dust.
Melissa Hebert, Infineon’s senior manager of Austin site projects shows CNBC’s Katie Tarasov around inside the Infineon chip fabrication plant in Austin, Texas, on June 14, 2023.
Andrew Evers
We also toured the two biggest new projects under construction in the state.
Samsung’s new plant in the town of Taylor is scheduled to come online next year. It will be the location of Samsung’s first advanced chips produced in the U.S, but it’s not the company’s first foray in the state.
Samsung came to Texas in 1996, breaking ground on a big fab in Austin that’s now used entirely for foundry, making logic chips for outside customers. The company opened a second fab there in 2007.
“Our customers love to come to Texas,” said Jon Taylor, Samsung’s corporate vice president of fab engineering. “It’s equidistant from either coast and we know that some of the world’s most prominent fabless companies are actually in the United States.”
With the new facility near Austin, it will “increase their ability to source their chips domestically and not have to go into areas of the world where they may have some discomfort,” Taylor said.
Texas Instruments’ fab in Sherman, a town of 45,000 people 60 miles north of Dallas, is an even bigger investment. And it adds to the company’s legacy in Sherman, which dates back to a separate facility in 1966.
“Texas Instruments went a long way in putting Sherman on the map,” said David Plyler, the city’s mayor, adding that the new fab represents “a huge investment in our community.”
Plyler said Sherman’s “entire tax base was around $4 billion.”
Texas Instruments was founded in 1930 as Geophysical Service Inc., adopting its current name in 1951. Seven years after that, an engineer at the company named Jack Kilby filed for a patent for the integrated circuit. That invention opened up the possibility of miniaturizing chips by creating the entire circuit, not just the transistors, out of silicon.
Texas Instruments went on to design products like the first handheld electronic calculator in 1967, and is still known for graphing calculators that are used in classrooms around the world.
“It is very much so the calculator company to much of the world, but we are so much more than that,” said Kyle Flessner, senior vice president of Texas Instruments’ technology and manufacturing group. “If you have an electronic device, you almost certainly have a TI semiconductor chip inside of it. So we have 80,000 products that ship out to 100,000 different customers.”
Flessner said the company’s technology is in “about anything that you can plug into a wall or that has a cord in it.”
CNBC interviewed Flessner at Texas Instruments’ RFAB2 fab in Richardson, Texas, a suburb just north of Dallas. The plant came online in September and marks the company’s second plant in Richardson, where Texas Instruments plans to manufacture a combined 100 million analog chips per day.
Water and power
Texas Instruments’ $17 billion chip fab project in Sherman, Texas, on June 15, 2023.
Andrew Evers
Flessner also took us to the construction site in Sherman. Among the major draws there, he said, were water and power. Local lawmakers in the past have purchased water rights at the nearby Lake Texoma, which hovers over the Texas-Oklahoma border and is one of the largest reservoirs in the country.
“We have plenty of water, which is gold currency for cities and economic development right now,” Plyler said.
Making chips takes billions of gallons of water each year. Texas Instruments isn’t the only company taking advantage of the area.
GlobalWafers, based in Taiwan, is expanding in Sherman, with plans to spend $5 billion on the biggest silicon wafer factory in the U.S., producing the bare discs on which chips are made.
Meanwhile, about a quarter of the state remains in drought, leaving businesses vulnerable to a rapidly changing climate.
“We have the Texas Water Board that’s working on that and legislation that we’re working on this session to make sure that with a growing population in Texas, we will be able to provide for the water needs, not just of businesses, but also for our growing population,” said Abbott.
Texas Instruments and Samsung are both increasing water reuse goals at their new facilities.
Then there’s the power requirements. Each of the advanced chip-etching extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines that Samsung will use in Taylor is rated to consume about 1 megawatt of electricity, or 10% more than the previous generation.
“I already signed 12 laws to make the power grid more reliable, more resilient and more secure,” Abbott said. “We can definitely assure any business moving here they will have access to the power they need, but also at a low cost.”
Samsung, Infineon and NXP were forced to shut down their Austin fabs temporarily during the blackout in February 2021. Samsung, Infineon and others have since switched entirely to renewable power.
‘Texas is spacious’
Samsung is building a $17 billion chip fab on 1,200 acres in Taylor, Texas, 30 miles north of Austin. Construction site shown here on April 21, 2023.
Katie Brigham
Since the early days of Silicon Valley, the cost of making smaller and smaller transistors has skyrocketed, along with the size of the machines and amount of land needed for manufacturing. Texas has long been famous for plentiful land and policies that are favorable to new businesses.
“Texas is spacious, it’s huge, and then it has great support for ease of business,” said Jinman Han, the head of Samsung’s U.S. chip business. “At the same time we are having great support from our local governments in Texas, even from the Texas governor himself.”
Germany’s Infineon, one of the world’s biggest providers of automotive chips, has been in the U.S. for 25 years and makes many of its semiconductors in Austin.
“The number of chips in an automotive, in an EV, in automotive in general is drastically increasing,” said Melissa Hebert, Infineon’s senior manager of Austin site projects. “And all the connectivity, everything communicating within the car, around the car is increasing the chip content in every vehicle.”
In 2020, Infineon expanded manufacturing in Texas, buying Cypress Semiconductor for about $10 billion.
“With the support we’ve had from the state legislature and then also the federal support in this industry, Texas continues to be a hub for where we can build this manufacturing,” said Hebert, before taking us inside Infineon’s clean room.
NXP Semiconductors, which is based in the Netherlands, also has two fabs in Austin and recently made plans for a $2.6 billion expansion that would add an additional four-story fab.
X-FAB, a chip company that’s been in Texas for more than two decades, recently announced a $200 million expansion of its silicon carbide fab in north Texas.
Suppliers are following.
“When you start bringing in a fab like that, you need to build the ecosystem,” said Samsung’s Taylor. “There’s a lot of discussion these days about onshoring supply chains.”
Of the $17 billion price tag for Samsung’s fab in Taylor, $11 billion is going to machinery and equipment. Texas Instruments said such tools will account for at least 65% of its new fab costs in Sherman, including the $200 million EUV lithography machines made by ASML, which has offices in Dallas and Austin.
The world’s next biggest provider of semiconductor equipment, Applied Materials, has been in Austin since 1992.
Samsung reported dismal first-quarter earnings in April and cut production of memory chips in response to falling prices. But it’s pouring more money into the foundry side of its business, making logic chips in Texas, and has plans to expand at its new facility near Austin.
“We have 1,200 acres and that first factory is taking up about 250 acres of it,” Taylor said. “So we have room to expand.”
Similarly, Texas Instruments is going big on fabs even after earlier this year reporting its first sales decline since 2020.
“We’re in the relatively early stages, but we are making tremendous progress towards having production out of this facility in 2025,” Flessner said.
U.S. President Donald Trump, and Anthony Albanese, Australia’s prime minister, shake hands outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Shares of some of Australia’s largest critical metals and rare earths companies surged on Tuesday following the announcement of a massive minerals deal between Washington and Canberra worth up to $8.5 billion.
The agreement — signed by U.S. President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday — includes funding for multiple projects aimed at boosting the supply of key materials used in defense manufacturing and energy security.
Lynas Rare Earths, Australia’s largest rare earths producer by market capitalization, jumped about 4.7% in early Asia trading. Mineral sand miner Iluka Resources advanced more than 9% while lithium producer Pilbara Minerals added roughly 5%.
Other smaller rare earth miners also made gains, with VHM soaring around 30%, while Northern Minerals popped over 16%. Meanwhile, Latrobe Magnesium, Australia’s primary producer of the critical metal magnesium, rose nearly 47%.
NYSE-listed Alcoa, which is developing a project in Western Australia to recover and refine the critical metal gallium, was identified as one of the two priority projects under the new minerals deal. Washington will make an equity investment in the initiative.
Shares of Alcoa, also traded on the Australian Securities Exchange through depositary receipts, rose nearly 10%.
Rare earths and critical metals are essential for high-tech products such as electric vehicles, semiconductors and defense equipment.
China, the global leader in the production of rare earths and many other critical minerals, has tightened export controls on the materials amid a trade war with the U.S., accelerating international efforts to diversify global supply chains.
Albanese said the two countries will each contribute $1 billion over the next six months for projects that are “immediately available.”
However, a White House fact sheet later stated that Washington and Canberra will invest more than $3 billion in critical mineral projects over the same period, describing the agreement as a “framework.”
The White House also said that the Export-Import Bank of the United States will issue seven letters of interest for more than $2.2 billion in financing, potentially unlocking up to $5 billion in total investment.
Consumers experience the iPhone 17 in an Apple store in Shanghai, China on October 13, 2025.
Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images
Critics’ displeasure at the iPhone 17 Pro’s fluorescent orange color aside, Apple’s “Cosmic Orange” smartphone has charmed fans — and investors.
The newest iPhone 17 series, which includes the base iPhone 17 and its overachieving Pro and skinny Air siblings — that come in colors other than orange, to be clear — has been outselling the previous one in the U.S. and China, according to Counterpoint data. In fact, the iPhone Air sold out within minutes of going on sale in China, reported the South China Morning Post.
Shares of Apple popped nearly 4% on the news and closed at an all-time high. That must be welcome news for CEO Tim Cook and investors, as the stock has been one of the biggest laggards in the Magnificent 7 group. That jump puts Apple’s year-to-date gains at around 5%, compared with Nvidia’s 36% and Meta’s 25%.
Another member of the Mag 7, however, had a bumpy Monday. Amazon’s cloud arm, Amazon Web Services, suffered an outage. Sites such as Reddit and Snapchat went dark, plunging millions, including yours truly, into existential crises. Shares of Amazon still increased around 1.6%.
U.S. markets also rose more broadly, with major indexes ending Monday in the green. This week, investors will be keeping their eye on the U.S.’ trade developments with China as well as earnings reports from companies such as Netflix, Tesla and Intel.
What you need to know today
And finally…
U.S. President Donald Trump (L) greets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy outside the West Wing of the White House on October 17, 2025, in Washington, DC.
U.S. President Donald Trump held a tense meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday, with the potential supply of U.S. long-range cruise missiles, Tomahawks, on the agenda.
Zelenskyy walked away from the meeting not only empty-handed, but apparently upbraided by Trump, who said Ukraine should accept Russia’s terms for ending the war — by handing over the entire eastern territory of Donbas, the epicenter of ongoing fighting in Ukraine.
US President Donald Trump speaks to the press after disembarking from Air Force One upon arrival at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, Oct. 17, 2025, as he travels to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
President Donald Trump is stepping up his calls to deploy the National Guard to San Francisco at the very moment that the city is undergoing a post-pandemic resurgence, propelled by artificial intelligence.
Crime rates are down 30% from 2024, homicide levels hit their lowest levels in 70 years and car break-ins haven’t been this low in 22 years. Meanwhile, event bookings and tourism are on the rise, residential real estate is becoming more scarce and the office market is heating up.
Business momentum in the city is largely built on the AI boom.
New data from CBRE show venture capital funding in 2025 is expected to surpass the record high of $276 billion hit in 2021. The bulk of that investment has been in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, where 80% of AI venture funding through the third quarter has been targeted to the tune of $115 billion.
By the end of the September, the San Francisco Bay Area was already 35% above its previous annual investment peak, according to CBRE’s VC Funding analysis.
“San Franciscans are feeling positive about the direction of our city once again,” Daniel Lurie, the city’s Democratic mayor said in a statement last week released by Governor Gavin Newsom’s office. “And we are going to continue working every single day to build on this progress and keep our city safe 365 days a year.”
The statement was meant to tout the successful efforts of local law enforcement ahead of Salesforce’s annual Dreamforce conference last week. The issue became particularly controversial after Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff told the New York Times that he’d support Trump’s call for federal troops to be sent to San Francisco. His sentiments were publicly supported by Elon Musk and David Sacks, high-profile techies with close ties to the Trump Administration.
On Friday, facing mounting criticism, Benioff backtracked, posting on X that, “Having listened closely to my fellow San Franciscans and our local officials, and after the largest and safest Dreamforce in our history, I do not believe the National Guard is needed to address safety in San Francisco.”
The Trump administration recently deployed the National Guard to Chicago and Portland, Oregon, sparking protests and lawsuits. Over the weekend, President Trump repeated his plans to send troops to San Francisco, telling Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo that, “the difference is I think they want us in San Francisco.”
The White House didn’t immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the President’s plans.
In a statement late Monday, Lurie said San Francisco law enforcement has partnerships with federal agencies to deal with drug crimes and additional troops aren’t necessary.
“I am deeply grateful to the members of our military for their service to our country, but the National Guard does not have the authority to arrest drug dealers — and sending them to San Francisco will do nothing to get fentanyl off the streets or make our city safer,” Lurie said.
Lurie previously cheered the safety of events that took place in the last week including Dreamforce and No Kings Protests over the weekend. In contrast to Newsom, Lurie has taken a far less combative approach to Trump since taking office in January.
“San Francisco is on the rise,” Lurie wrote in a post on X on Oct. 12, a couple days before Dreamforce was set to begin.
The data support that view.
Tourism spending is expected to increase modestly this year to $9.35 billion, up from $9.26 billion, according to the San Francisco Travel Association. Conferences, sporting events such as NBA All-Star weekend, and music festivals like Outside Lands have contributed to the growth.
The commercial real estate market is also recovering as Covid-era work from home policies get slowly unwound.
Tech companies increased their share of leasing activity by square footage to 53% in 2025, the highest since 2019, CBRE said. Apartment rental prices are surging as well. Multifamily rentals increased 6% in August, much more than the 3.75% jump in Chicago, the city with the second-steepest climb, according to CoStar.
Ted Egan, chief economist for San Francisco, told CNBC in an interview that “housing is probably as cheap as it’s going to get for a while.”
There remains plenty of room for improvement. The city has lost key tenants in its downtown shopping district in recent years, including its flagship Nordstrom store. The Nordstrom location was part of San Francisco City Centre, which was the city’s largest mall but is now effectively empty.
Office vacancies remained high at 33.6% in the third quarter, according to Cushman and Wakefield. Homelessness and open drug use are longstanding issues, heavily concentrated in certain parts of the city.
But Egan said that, in addition to the data, he’s noticed a significant change in the city’s health.
“It seems cleaner and safer now than it’s ever been in any of the time that I’ve been here,” said Egan, who’s worked in San Francisco for more than 20 years. “I still think it’s a great place to move to because it’s got tons of economic opportunity. It’s got tons of long-term economic strengths for people starting out in their career.”