Samsung announced today the it will be spending around $4 billion to renovate some of its existing Austin, Texas facilities. The investment is in order to boost production of its system-on-a-chip that powers many mobile platforms, including Apples iOS line of devices.
The funds will be used to renovate its existing fabrication operations to accommodate full System LSI production.
The remodeled fabrication line will mainly produce state-of-the-art mobile SoCs on 300mm wafers at the 28nm process node.
With work on the renovations scheduled to start this month, the project should initiate mass production by the second half of 2013. Around 2,500 construction workers and vendors will be at the site to renovate the facility and set up equipment.
Samsung will be converting older facilities currently used for memory chip production.
Samsung will not say who it is they will be making the new chips for, but industry analysts say the Austin factory is a maker of low-power system chips, and say they expect the two key customers for the Austin plant to be Apple, and Samsung itself.
Austin already serves as a hub for Apple, and for Samsung’s system-on-a-chip production. Samsung opened a new factory dedicated to producing Apple’s A5 chips just last December, and Apple is currently pursuing a major expansion of its facilities in the city.
