Greg Abbott declared Sunday that his state will be the home of semiconductor manufacturing going forward, as chip shortage has been affecting companies around the globe.
The Republican governor said that the country made a mistake over the past two decades to farm out of the production of all essential supplies, whether it be now semiconductors or health care supplies that we needed during the time of COVID. He said that Texas is leading the way to becoming the home for semiconductors that go into everything that people use.
He went on to say that it was not just your iPhone or laptop or whatever the case may be. It is also in all of these vehicles where you have manufacturing going on. Abbott had stated on Sunday that the semiconductor chip shortage was caused by some regulations that were implemented and decisions made during the COVID-19 epidemic.
The auto sector was heavily affected by the shortage throughout the year. General Motors had to reduce truck production in North America due to the global chip shortage. Ford has pulled back production at several factories.
The South Korean tech giant will build a $17 billion semiconductor factory in Taylor, Texas late last month, according to FORD, Abbott and Samsung Electronics Co.
The move was touted as the largest foreign direct investment in the state of Texas ever, according to the governor. Samsung Electronics Device Solutions Division Vice Chairman and CEO Dr. Kinam Kim said that the company hopes to create more than 2,000 high-tech jobs with the plant in Taylor and thousands more related to the plant once it is fully operational.
The chip-making factory coming to Taylor will be the largest investment made by Samsung in the US, the company said in a news release, bringing the firm's total investment in the U.S. to more than 47 billion since beginning operations in the country in 1978. Last week, Tesla revealed it was now a Texas company according to paperwork filed with the SEC on Wednesday.
The automaker announced today that it has its corporate headquarters in Gigafactory in Austin.
Elon Musk plans to relocate Tesla's headquarters from California during October's shareholder meeting, following a year of friction between the state government over COVID rules and a tweet from California state Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, which said F-K Elon Musk said the company was reaching the limits of expansion at its original Fremont, California, factory, and that the expansive Texas facility offered more opportunities for growth.
Abbott told host Maria Bartiromo that there were 70 businesses and corporations that have moved their headquarters to the state of Texas in the first 11 months of 2021. He said that if you look on average, there is a new headquarters in Texas every five days, that means there is a new headquarters in Texas.
Abbott pointed out Samsung's investment in Taylor.
The governor said that it was in addition to an announcement the week before Texas Instruments announced a $30 billion investment for semiconductors.
The semiconductors will help in the supply chain process. Abbott said that the economy in Texas is growing and businesses are moving to the state because Texas is the land of economic opportunity and innovation. He said that there are no mandates infringing on individual liberty and that is a reason so many businesses are moving to Texas. Texas has been very aggressive about legal challenging all of the mandates that the Biden administration has put in place regarding COVID, he told Bartiromo.
We have won all of them in the courts, whether it be vaccine mandates or mask mandates. Abbott said that there can be no mandates infringing on individual liberty because of the executive order saying that nobody in the state of Texas can be mandated to take a vaccine shot.