Texas’s Drive for Semiconductor Chip Production Fuels Tens of Thousands of Job Opportunities
The world certainly felt the squeeze when semiconductor supply chains broke down during the COVID-19 pandemic. Semiconductors are the tiny, technologically complex chips that give computing power to everything from phones to cars, and global demand for them is only growing. A 2022 McKinsey analysis predicts the industry will see 6-8% growth every year up to 2030.
U.S. officials are looking to supercharge domestic chip manufacturing after years of falling behind Taiwan and South Korea. In 1990, the U.S. produced 37% of the world’s semiconductors, but accounts for just 12% of production today.
Besides creating well-paying science and engineering jobs, manufacturing chips in America prevents future supply chain crises on the home front. Fortunately, information technology in Texas is ahead of the game, and gaining ground thanks to new funding and initiatives.
Leading national development
“Basically, everywhere you turn, you are engaged with something that has a microchip in it. That is just going to accelerate in the coming years,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbot said in announcing a new executive board of science and tech experts that will advise the state’s semiconductor development initiatives.
Texas – already the nation’s leader in chip manufacturing with 43,000 residents currently working in the industry – is investing in the sector in a big way, helped in part by the federal CHIPS and Science Act. The CHIPS Act boosts research and production of semiconductors, and $6.4 billion in funding was awarded to Samsung as they work on building two new plants, a packaging facility, and design center in the Austin area.
Samsung’s expansion would make Texas an essential hub of domestic semiconductor production, the U.S. Department of Commerce said in announcing the investment. The department projected that the new facilities would help the U.S. in its goal of producing 20% of the world’s chips by 2030.
Besides the Samsung project, the state has five large chip manufacturing projects planned, including a new $30 billion Texas Instruments facility in the Dallas Fort-Worth area. Design and manufacturing are only one driver of jobs; with expansion by the big players, more opportunities develop in the industry. Construction has recently begun in the small town of Elgin on a new Yerico Manufacturing location for repairing and refurbishing semiconductor equipment.
Education investment at every level
Texas’s new board of semiconductor experts is chaired by the leader of the University of Texas-Dallas, a sign of the state’s commitment to workforce development amid the industry’s massive expansion.
The University of Texas introduced a new master’s degree program in semiconductor engineering earlier this year, with four distinct branches of study.
“There’s an estimate right now that there’s gonna be a demand for about 31,000 additional master’s degree folks in the semiconductor manufacturing space,” Roger Bonnecaze, dean of the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas-Austin, told the Texas Standard.
Educational initiatives aren’t just focused on top tech design jobs. Significant funding from Texas’s own CHIPS Act is going toward a partnership between the Austin Community College and UT’s Texas Institute of Electronics to train technicians in chip fabrication. There will be a large need for skilled labor at every level of the semiconductor manufacturing process.
“As these industries grow in Texas, we’re going to need thousands — maybe tens of thousands – of additional Texans contributing to the success of the semiconductor research and manufacturing enterprise,” UTD President Emeritus David Daniel Jr., told Kera News while discussing the state’s goals as a tech powerhouse.
