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TI to invest $60B to manufacture foundational semiconductors in the U.S.
See also https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/18/texas-instruments-plans-60-billion-us-investment.html https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/18/texas-instruments-plans-60-b...
- merillecuz56 1y ago[dead]
- TMWNN 1y agoTitle shortened by me from "Texas Instruments plans to invest more than $60 billion to manufacture billions of foundational semiconductors in the U.S." CNBC: <https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/18/texas-instruments-plans-60-billion-us-investment.html https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/18/texas-instruments-plans-60-b...>
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- 7thaccount 1y agoDo they actually plan this, or is it just to make the current administration happy? $60B sounds like a lot of money.
- idiotsecant 1y agoBased on every one of these promises ever, yes. It's probably somewhere between vaporware and a small tertiary facility.
- ashwinsundar 1y agoWhat are some things TI promised on, but failed to deliver?
- Mistletoe 1y agohttps://spectrum.ieee.org/the-inside-story-of-texas-instruments-biggest-blunder-the-tms9900-microprocessor https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-inside-story-of-texas-instrume...
- Retric 1y agoNumber of new jobs for one. They just laid off ~300 people working on an older node in Lehi, Utah, while now claiming they’re going to bring new jobs to Lehi, Utah. Thus “new jobs” don’t really track the actual change in the number of their employees even just at the local level across even moderate timescales. Similarly hyping up total R&D spending without a tight timeframe is meaningless, they will eventually spend X$ assuming the company survives indefinitely. More charitably there’s meaningful differences between nodes, but it’s likely a significant portion of the workforce will be rehires.
- cwal37 1y agoThey’ve steadily expanded over the years, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was real. It’s not just calculators, TI chips show up in a lot of military hardware in particular.
- bigfatkitten 1y agoThere are a lot of markets where TI is king, such as in battery management ICs.
- UncleOxidant 1y agowhich generally cost pennies.
- baq 1y agoIf you want to build a fleet of infantry drones and you want to source components from the US there’s a lot of these and many others to buy. Not sure if there’s $60B of them there but they’ll figure out how to waste this much I’m sure.
- hiddenfinance 1y agoWell if you look at how Feds has being pumping money into Musk's bank account and what brought down the SVB, then $60B may not be that much. At this point as the country that can prints/(adjust db ledger) $60B is nothing.
- wongarsu 1y agoWhich is why they are not planning to make cutting edge semiconductors in the new plant but "foundational semiconductors" aka old nodes that now cost pennies
- chneu 1y agoThese have super low profit margins.
- duxup 1y agoTheir announcement seems to be a mix of new and already announced expansions.
- acdha 1y agoThey’re making a political advertisement to get favors for things they already did. The meat of the announcement is that the plants started under the Biden administration are continuing as planned – which is an accomplishment of sorts given how complex fabs are – and they’d really like to continue getting the CHIPS act funding which Trump periodically talks about cancelling because it was a Biden-era law even though it had strong support from Republicans who favor investing in important domestic industries, especially in their districts: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/12/texas-congress-cornyn-mccaul-trump-chips-act/ https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/12/texas-congress-corny...
- cwal37 1y agoAlso already building a new fab up in Sherman, Texas. Fabs have pretty decent electricity demand, I actually sited a battery against that one after we did a bit of modeling with the new load vs the solar flows in the area. Siting just means make a land deal, figure out easements, and start working its way through the queue. Might not ever get built though, lot of money and hurdles in the way ha. Every time I see an industrial announcement like this power is the first thing I think of - where it’s gonna come from and what impact it will have on the existing grid.
- alephnerd 1y agoMost of these projects invest heavily in renewable energy, becuase the scale makes it cost efficient. During the Biden era, there were a bunch of additional incentives to push for renewable investments in these projects, on top of Texas's very generous renewable tech incentives - most ONG companies began investing heavily in renewables all the way back in the 2000s because they're ENERGY conglomerates first and foremost. If you have a beating pulse and a strong renewable tech IP, you will raise a seed successfully from the Saudi PIF or Cheveron Ventures even in this market. Sadly, this is HN, not Bookface, so most ideas are bad ideas. Sucks too because it was a very fruitful demo days - one of the more impactful over the past several years.
- xyst 1y ago[flagged]
- ashwinsundar 1y agoDefinitely way more than a "calculator company"...
- sampullman 1y agoEvery design I've ever seen has something from TI.
- analog31 1y agoSame here, especially when you consider that they bought Burr-Brown and National Semiconductor.
- Eisenstein 1y agoCompany that made the first commercial transistor and invented the integrated circuit also makes calculators.
- synack 1y agoLast I checked, a lot of the US manufactured dies got shipped overseas for packaging. I wonder when they'll have that capability domestically.
- alephnerd 1y agoYes. CHIPS invested heavily in OSAT and Packaging capacity - especially in TX. Samsung, Micron, OmSemi, and TI took full advantage of that under the Biden admin while Intel and TSMC were fighting on the airwaves to undermine each other. Much of the rest has been reinvested in SK and India (TI is part of the SCL Mohali modernization RFP) as part of the QUAD+ initiative. A lot of us in the private and public sector working in this space aren't idiots.
- coliveira 1y agoThe key phrase here is: "we are honored to work alongside them and the U.S. government to unleash what’s next in American innovation.” They're expecting to get money from government to make this happen. If it will be done is anyone's guess.
- georgeecollins 1y agoThis should be one of the biggest wins for US manufacturing since the Foxconn plant in Wisconsin. /s
- Moto7451 1y agoThis is what immediately popped in my mind. What’s that definition of insanity again… I’d love it if things were streamlined when building. Just as a homeowner it’s amazing how hard it can be to get a permit or an inspection. The lame duct tape fix seems to me some weird CMS and ArcGIS, as if that somehow fixes the human and policy problems.
- anitil 1y agoFor those out of the loop but who enjoy podcasts, there is a Reply All episode about this [0] though somehow I can't find a direct link as spotify seems to have swallowed all of gimlet and killed the links. I couldn't even find a transcript. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/gimlet/comments/a3lyny/reply_all_132_negative_mount_pleasant/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gimlet/comments/a3lyny/reply_all_13...
- chneu 1y agoStep 1: Announce American Investment. Step 2: stroke Trump's ego Step 3: receive money Step 4: foxconn their way to the bank
- jppope 1y agoSomeone correct me here, but Texas Instruments was one of the companies that mortgaged their future in the name of financialization (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/yeah-its-still-water-ben-hunt/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/yeah-its-still-water-ben-hunt...) and their market cap right now is ~170B... How are they going to afford an investment thats ~1/3rd the value of the company? Seems like one of those announcements that no one follows up on to keep them honest?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- spiderfarmer 1y agoCan’t blame them for trying to pry a few dollars from an administration that seems desperate to show some wins.
- Moto7451 1y agoEspecially when the reality of building and permitting will mean someone else, even if it’s from the current administration, will be in power long after the check is cashed and ground broken if it even happens. Because of the time scale there’s plenty of time for the “aw shucks it didn’t work out” if that’s the better path. Hitting a few milestones but not enough to actually break ground can be exceptionally profitable.
- MichaelZuo 1y agoMortgaged what future? The linked article doesn’t even try to complete the argument… there’s not a single reason offered why TI could plausibly have increased total revenues more… instead of just spinning their wheels from a higher cost base. Or to put it another way, why wouldn’t that revenue growth have gone to their competitors?, which did in fact happen.
- cchance 1y agoThey wont its another marketing scam by the admin lol, promise shit now, don't deliver reap benefits till the public/admin forgets, you dont actually have to do shit you just have to say you will same as the last time
- ruined 1y agoanyone know if their fab automation scripts are still not under version control
- Titan2189 1y agotell us more
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- Animats 1y agoWhat's a "foundational semiconductor"? This seems to be a political term, not one the electronics industry uses.[1] "Foundational chips (also called “legacy,” “lagging edge,” and “mature node” semiconductors) are often defined as chips made with a 22nm manufacturing process or above." Is there actually a lack of 22nm and larger fab capacity in the US? Or is it just that they're not being used much. [1] https://selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/Chris%20Miller%20Written%20Testimony.pdf https://selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites...
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> What's a "foundational semiconductor"? What PA and Fairchild did. We haven’t had a new-entrant opening for fundamental semiconductor design for decades, a fact laid bare in their top engineers’ comp. (No clue if this is what they are actually doing.)
- mycatisblack 1y agoDoes ON Semi have fabs in the US?
- Animats 1y agoYes, but no idea how important the US fabs are. They have more fabs in China, India, Japan, Europe...[1] ON Semi is the successor of Motorola's semiconductor business. [1] https://www.onsemi.com/company/about-onsemi/locations https://www.onsemi.com/company/about-onsemi/locations
- Eduard 1y agoPA? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P.A._Semi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P.A._Semi ? What is it that Fairchild and "PA" did that makes them foundational?
- rkagerer 1y agoAlso known as a PR semiconductor.
- boxboxbox4 1y ago[dead]
- tho324j23o4234 1y ago[flagged]
- OhMeadhbh 1y agoSo the chips they don't have in stock will be made in the US? So what?
- rajnathani 1y agoThe adjective "foundational" for semiconductors can be ignored here, it is simply that TI will make more of their existing chips in the US with nothing being different in their current IC lineup of mostly MCUs, ADCs, etc simple ICs.
- kragen 1y agoReally? You don't think it means specifically "old"? Because TI also makes new chips like their MSPM0 microcontroller lineup. Are those "foundational" too?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- romain_batlle 1y agowhat's up with those AI generated articles?
- ranguna 1y agoThese are the kind of figures the EU should be looking at. Not the meagre hundreds of millions.
- dzonga 1y agothe TSMC founder was once a Ti employee. Yet due to cism he got denied the opportunity to steer the org. Now it's time to play to trump's whims and earn a quick payout.
- TecoAndJix 1y agoJust learned about this from the acquired podcast - highly recommend the TSMC (remastered) episode (IKEA and Costco one are good, too) - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/acquired/id1050462261?i=1000684803477 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/acquired/id1050462261?...
- kragen 1y agoIs "cism" here intended to be "racism"? Jensen Huang also interviewed at TI but took his first semiconductor job at AMD instead.
- newsclues 1y agoNeed a new rule: you have to write the cheque before you receive congratulations for an announcement
- lightedman 1y agoHopefully they invest in actual QC. I hate doing a first article, seeing nothing wrong on the IC side of the LED board, then apply power and have the IC explode and rocket off the board, taking traces and pads with it (or if I'm lucky, it just craters its packaging.) And it is BAD. I'm talking 1/20 kind of bad, off multiple reels (I've gone though tens of thousands of them.) Only TI stuff.
- phendrenad2 1y agoI'll believe it when I can buy an op-amp or mosfet with a little "USA" etched onto it. Til then, it's as fake as Foxconn and TSMC.
- alnwlsn 1y agoTI chips already have a little Texas engraved on them....
- ano-ther 1y agoIt seems like a reprise of this December 2024 announcement re CHIPS act during the previous administration. The fact sheets (linked on the page) amount to $51bn from what I can see. https://www.ti.com/about-ti/newsroom/news-releases/2024/2024-12-20-texas-instruments-announces-award-agreement-for-chips-and-science-act-funding.html https://www.ti.com/about-ti/newsroom/news-releases/2024/2024...
- delfugal 1y agoPlans "to invest" can always change. Appears someone has been promised a tax break along with Mar-a-lago chocolate cake.
- jt2190 1y agoI was wondering where the money comes from. This article [1] says it's government money provided through the CHIPS act: > In December, the [prior] administration finalized a $1.61 billion government subsidy for Texas Instruments to support construction of three new facilities after the company announced plans to invest at least $18 billion under the $52.7 billion CHIPS and Science bill. [1] "Texas Instruments plans $60 billion US investment under Trump push" https://www.reuters.com/business/texas-instruments-plans-invest-over-60-billion-us-make-foundational-chips-2025-06-18/ https://www.reuters.com/business/texas-instruments-plans-inv... Edit: Did the HN link change? I thought the link was to a TI press release with few details.
- kragen 1y agoI feel like this is a fairly small investment on the scale of the semiconductor industry, although it would be large for a single company if we were talking about a single year. See, for example, https://wccftech.com/chinese-chip-giant-smic-shaken-by-tariffs-but-still-plans-to-spend-7-billion-in-2025-to-make-more-chips/ https://wccftech.com/chinese-chip-giant-smic-shaken-by-tarif... US$7.5 billion in capex at SMIC this year. But SMIC is just the largest of dozens of Mainland China semiconductor firms, and a lot of that investment is going into cutting-edge strategic nodes, not 180nm stuff from last millennium. Don't get me wrong, you need that stuff from last millennium—not just 180nm but also the 6 μm I suspect "foundational" actually refers to. You need power regulation, precision measurement, and RF frontends in analog, and analog can't scale down the way digital can. And TI actually retains a world-leading position in those chips, with better and cheaper ICs than anything out of Mainland China today. But it's potentially a game of chasing China's taillights. SiGe might be an exception; even at 130nm, IHP's SiGe BiCMOS process can hit 450GHz oscillation frequency and 350GHz ft, so even at fairly coarse process node sizes, SiGe could be a strategic enabling technology for submillimeter communication such as Starlink, which is reportedly critical for weapons such as Ukraine's naval drones.
- _zagj 1y agoWorth noting that TI primarily makes logic semiconductors, and those don't require the advanced 2nm, 3nm or even 5nm node processes that TSMC's and Samsung's most advanced fabs support. However logic semiconductors may have special operating constraints, like extremes of temperature, that the semiconductors produced by foundries don't require.
- insane_dreamer 1y agoWhere is Ti getting $60B from?
- mNovak 1y agoThe article mentions SiGe at the Sherman site, which is an RF node. These are usually at 22-100+ nm scale, so "mature" or "foundational" compared to 2nm stuff, but the really tight nodes aren't always inherently better for RF.