Texas Instruments broke ground on May 18 to build its new 300-mm semiconductor wafer fabrication plants in Sherman, Texas.

The Dallas, Texas-based automotive chip maker plans to invest US$30 billion in total to build four fab facilities there to address explosive demand for automotive chips, as cars are rapidly going digital.

“Today is an important milestone as we lay the groundwork for the future growth of semiconductors in electronics to support our customers’ demand for decades to come,” said Rich Templeton, CEO. 

Added he, “Since our founding more than 90 years ago, we’ve operated with a passion to create a better world by making electronics more affordable through semiconductors. TI is excited to bring advanced 300-mm semiconductor manufacturing to Sherman.”

The potential $30 billion investment includes plans to build four fabs to meet demand over time, supporting as many as 3,000 direct jobs.

The new fabs will manufacture tens of millions of analog and embedded processing chips daily that will go into electronics everywhere.

Coming Online by 2025

TI has a long-standing commitment to responsible, sustainable manufacturing. The new fabs will be designed to meet one of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building rating system’s highest levels of structural efficiency and sustainability: LEED Gold. Advanced 300-mm equipment and processes in Sherman will further reduce waste, water and energy consumption.

Production from the first Sherman fab is expected in 2025.

The fabs will complement TI’s existing 300-mm fabs, which include DMOS6 (Dallas), RFAB1 and the soon-to-be-completed RFAB2 (both in Richardson, Texas), which is expected to start production later this year.

Additionally, LFAB (Lehi, Utah) is expected to begin production in early 2023. “These investments in long-term manufacturing capacity further extend the company’s cost advantage and provide greater control of our supply chain,” Templeton said.