Texas Instruments breaks ground in Sherman, commits to $30 billion and four chip plants

An hour north of Dallas, where the D-FW area’s urban sprawl gives way to fields, Texas Instruments is building a massive facility with major implications for the U.S. economy. At a groundbreaking Wednesday for two of the four potential factories it has planned for the site, TI president and CEO Rich Templeton reiterated the company’s commitment to building all four plants. TI says the first factory will begin producing tens of thousands of 300mm wafer semiconductor chips daily in 2025. The second will remain a shell until demand justifies bringing it online. “We’ll continue to build those out based on demand,” Templeton said. “Building that second plant [now] will reduce the lead time construction-wise so that when the market gets hotter, we can ramp up that second facility.” The cost of the entire campus is estimated at $30 billion — the single largest capital investment the state of Texas will have ever seen from a company. Two dozen football fields could fit on the land that will eventually support the high tech manufacturing plants. The development is projected to ultimately create 3,000 jobs and could be a boon for the Texoma-area economy.

“You are going to play a role in making Texas the leading chip manufacturer in the United States of America,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said at the ceremony on Wednesday. Sen. John Cornyn sent a recorded statement, and local Sherman officials made remarks as well. “TI has solidified Sherman’s status as the high tech hub of North Texas,” Sherman Mayor David Plyler said. In recent months, the federal government has said that limited supplies of semiconductor chips have bottlenecked manufacturing of highly sought after goods, chief among them new vehicles. The U.S. Department of Commerce dubbed the issue a significant factor contributing to the record inflation currently frustrating Americans. A Biden administration-backed $52 billion plan to subsidize chip manufacturing in the U.S. passed the Senate in late March. In public statements, President Biden has positioned strengthening domestic computer chip production as essential to America’s independence from China. Demand for semiconductor chips is increasing globally as products evolve their computing capabilities, requiring even more chips in each individual unit than in previous history. A new vehicle today requires 150 computer chip components or more, according to Kelly Blue Book. Chipmakers like Dallas-based TI have been cautious about bringing too much supply online while facing exceptional pressure to ramp up production, and to do so in the U.S. where industry can gain greater control of supply chains that have historically sourced parts from foreign countries. TI considered putting the four-factory campus in Singapore before ultimately cutting a huge tax incentive deal with Sherman and choosing to locate the plants in North Texas.