Taylor mayor says Samsung’s Texas plant could launch ahead of schedule

[INTERVIEW] 

Samsung Electronics could move up the start of production at its $37 billion chip plant in Taylor, Texas, following a supply agreement with Tesla, the mayor of the U.S. city projected, raising the prospect of an earlier launch than the late-2026 goal.

Taylor Mayor Dwayne Ariola anticipated that the equipment installation would soon take place, a development that is spurring the city to accelerate efforts to build out an ecosystem of suppliers, restaurants and hotels.

“For sure, the timeline is going to be accelerated by Mr. Musk — he’s not a patient man,” Ariola said in an online interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily on Thursday. “So, when you sign a contract for $16.5 billion, you want your chips right away. Of all the customers in the world, it’s to our advantage that we have Mr. Musk pushing Samsung to make chips. And that will happen quite rapidly.”

Samsung purchased 1,268 acres of land in Taylor for its semiconductor complex, nearly double the size of its Austin campus. Ariola said he expects Samsung to invest further in the site, given that the purchased land could accommodate up to 10 chip factories, according to an initial layout proposed by Samsung. According to state filings in 2022, Samsung outlined the possibility of spending up to $170 billion on new facilities in Taylor. However, those projections were made when Washington was still finalizing CHIPS Act subsidies.

More recently, the White House has floated the idea of equity stakes instead of direct grants, raising questions about how much support foreign companies, such as Samsung, will ultimately receive.

For now, Samsung’s vast Taylor site remains mostly empty, with only two chip facilities under construction. To Ariola, that emptiness is less a gap than an opportunity: a blank canvas for the city’s economic transformation as Samsung — and its customers — expand their footprint in Central Texas.

The following are excerpts from the interview, edited for length and clarity.

Q. Samsung has said it would begin mass production at the Taylor complex at the end of 2026, but could that be fast-forwarded?
A. I’m sure there are incentives for Samsung to start making chips sooner rather than later, but those details are in the contract, and we don’t see them. I don’t know the exact lead times on the equipment, but they hadn’t even placed the orders until they had a customer contract — and that just happened. So, if you reverse-engineer it, they’ve now got to bring that equipment in, commission it, qualify it, validate it […] and there are probably a gazillion quality assurance steps they’ll have to tweak and calibrate. I’m sure it’s an intense process.

But I can tell you this: they’ll be testing next year in some shape, form or fashion. It just may not be making satisfactory chips.

What kind of suppliers are entering near the Samsung complex? Can you verify the number or the capacity of related companies newly entering Taylor?
Korean chemical supplier Soulbrain has secured land and had been waiting on Samsung’s timeline — now they’re moving ahead with their design process. iMarket Korea is more of a developer; they already owned land on the east side of Taylor and have been putting up warehouses. Until now, those warehouses were empty shells, but they’re about to start selling or leasing them to suppliers that don’t have the capital to build from scratch.

Right now, we’ve got about 3.1 million square feet of warehouse space already completed at Park 79, less than a mile north of Samsung’s site on Highway 79. Those buildings are just standing by, and I expect they’ll start going out like hotcakes. In total, there’s roughly 6 million square feet of warehouse and industrial space in the development pipeline — and that’s equivalent to the size of the Samsung complex.

Would the city be willing to lend financial support in any way if Samsung does not receive the promised CHIPS Act subsidy?
Our entire city budget is in the $30 millions. We’re not going to write a $4.75-billion check to Samsung. So, while I would be sad for them, it doesn’t affect the city.

Are there any meaningful changes taking shape in Taylor following Samsung’s designated time frame of starting mass production by 2026? Particularly after the disclosure of the Tesla deal?

Absolutely. When the announcement was made, a lot of land was purchased by various people and held in reserve. Samsung’s initial contract was to be operational in 2024, but as you know, we’re now in the third quarter of 2025, and they’re not operational.

Now that Samsung has a customer and there’s an end date, all of those individuals are reverse engineering to set when they will be operational. From our side of the house, we’re just seeing our door getting knocked on as far as development services now that Samsung’s ready, we need to get our projects rolling. So I guess that’s the change we’re seeing. You had this land, you’ve had it for a year and a half now, but you hadn’t done anything with it because we were waiting. There’s no more waiting. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

What is your vision behind realizing Samsung’s chip project in Taylor? Do you want to turn the city into a central semiconductor hub to attract other major chipmakers and manufacturers?

We don’t want Taylor to be nothing but semiconductors and suppliers. We want to stay diverse and bring in other industries, too. That’s why our Economic Development Corporation staff and president are out there every day recruiting companies — not just for Taylor, but for Williamson County and Travis County as well. We don’t want to fail in the long run by putting all our eggs in one basket.

For 65 years, my dad drove from Taylor to Austin to work, because back then, there weren’t jobs here unless you were a farmer or worked the railroads. There really wasn’t much opportunity in Taylor. And as Austin grew, we knew someday we’d just get absorbed into the sprawl — maybe decades down the road. But we didn’t want just to be a bedroom community stuck in traffic. Our biggest export was our people.

So, the thinking was: let’s go find jobs for our people right here. That’s how we landed Samsung. Now the priority is making sure Samsung is successful — and it will be. The federal government wants it to be successful, the state of Texas wants it to be successful. At this point, it’s simply too big to fail.

Are there any voices that oppose big industries coming into the city, whether it be environmental reasons or concerns about heavy energy use?
Sure, the old-school folks don’t want industry. They want to hold on to their farmland. But the truth is, once the county approved a highway through Taylor — long before Samsung showed up — the farmland was bound to go. You just can’t grow enough corn on 100 acres to make a return anymore, not when land values and taxes keep climbing. So, the choice became: let’s go get those jobs.

There are always going to be people who see the glass half empty, and that’s just the way it is. But the majority here want good schools, good jobs and the chance to live and work in Taylor without driving into crazy Austin traffic — or all the way to Temple, Leander or Cedar Park. That’s what everybody is excited for.

BY LEE JAE-LIM, PARK EUN-JEE [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]