BRAZOS COUNTY, Texas (KBTX) – Governor Greg Abbott announced a $1 million Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund grant to LTD Material for an 88,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Austin.
The grant represents part of a $25 million investment that will create 40 jobs. The project aims to expand production of parts essential to semiconductor manufacturing and reduce reliance on foreign suppliers.
Steve Putna, associate vice chancellor and director of the Texas A&M Semiconductor Institute, said the investment addresses supply chain security and national security concerns.
“Without products that this company makes, we’re not able to keep tools running, for example, at TI, Samsung,” Putna said. “There’s a lot of waterfall effects for bringing key capacity online to ensure that your supply chain doesn’t break.”
The foreign dependence problem:
Currently, 80% of high-quality quartz components used in semiconductor manufacturing are produced outside the United States.
“Not only just for Texas, but also for the broader U.S., much of those parts are not under domestic control,” Putna said. “This enables us to ensure that we can control that entire supply chain and keep those jobs present in Texas.”
The facility will support the broader push to onshore semiconductor manufacturing beyond just design, where the U.S. maintains a lead, to include the manufacturing components.
Training without degrees:
The company plans to offer training for technical roles that do not require college degrees. Putna said Texas A&M partners with institutions like Texas State Technical College and Austin Community College to provide direct training pathways.
“That could be as much as a high school graduate, six weeks of formal training, and then they’re directly into the marketplace, earning significantly higher amount than they would were they not to do that training,” Putna said.
The Texas A&M Semiconductor Institute has received grants from the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund for workforce development programs at College Station and regional universities, including Prairie View A&M.
Looking ahead:
Putna said the investment positions Texas to expand beyond traditional semiconductor manufacturing into emerging areas like quantum computing.
“This is an opportunity where companies can tap into a lot of the academic expertise at A&M and help leverage A&M as really thought leadership to help drive new products into the marketplace,” Putna said.
The initiative supports Governor Abbott’s directive to maintain Texas’s market leadership in semiconductor manufacturing while growing the state’s presence in the economy.
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