Samsung Austin Semiconductor
Large load · 12100 SAMSUNG BLVD, Austin, TX
Samsung Austin Semiconductor is Samsung Electronics' only semiconductor manufacturing plant outside Korea, a 12-inch (300mm) fab complex in northeast Austin, Texas, served by city-owned Austin Energy. Samsung has described itself as Austin Energy's largest customer, and in the February 2021 freeze it was among the industrial users ordered to idle. Samsung's newer fab in Taylor, 25 km to the northeast, sits in Oncor territory rather than Austin Energy's.
Overview
A 2010 release from Samsung Austin Semiconductor said it was already the largest Austin Energy customer, with an annual electrical bill of about $32.9 million, and that its $3.6 billion logic expansion would add more than $45 million per year to its electricity purchases. A 2021 Austin Chronicle column still called it the city's largest utility customer.
Profile
- February 2021: ordered to shut down
- During Winter Storm Uri, Austin Energy first asked industrial users to conserve, then curtailed users with backup generators, and finally ordered all of them to shut down completely. The coalition that negotiates with Austin Energy for its biggest customers said Samsung, NXP and Infineon all complied. Samsung wound its Northeast Austin campus down after notice and said it would resume production once power returned.
- Wind power purchases
- In 2019 the Austin fab established 75 MW of renewable energy from a new large-scale wind farm, through an aggregation of buyers that included Apple, eBay and Sprint buying from the Apex Clean Energy project.
Facility
- Activity
- Semiconductor wafer fabrication (NAND flash and advanced logic) on a 12-inch (300mm) line
- Industry
- Manufacturing
- Site type
- Facility
- Operating status
- Operating
Related records
Timeline
- Jan 1, 1996
- Samsung begins construction of its first Austin plant
Samsung Austin Semiconductor Begins $3.6B Expansion for Advanced Logic Chips
- Jun 9, 2010
- Samsung announces $3.6 billion expansion of the Austin fab
Samsung Austin Semiconductor Begins $3.6B Expansion for Advanced Logic Chips
- Jan 1, 2019
- Austin fab establishes 75 MW of wind-powered renewable energy
Winds of Change: We Purchase 100% Renewable Energy in the US
- Feb 16, 2021
- Austin Energy orders Samsung and other industrial customers to shut down during Winter Storm Uri