‘Great Opportunity’: Lehi and Silicon Slopes react to $11B investment from Texas Instruments

LEHI, Utah – City and business leaders applauded Utah’s deal with Texas Instruments that will result in the company building a second chip factory in Lehi and adding hundreds of high-paying jobs.

“This is a great opportunity for Lehi. It’s a great opportunity for the state of Utah,” said Lehi Mayor Mark Johnson.

The 800 new jobs will have an average salary of $110,000 and Johnson said the area’s highly educated workforce is ready to fill those positions.

Texas Instruments set to build new chip factory in Lehi

Utah Gov. Cox announced that Texas Instruments would create a new semiconductor factory in Lehi, Utah bringing “hundreds of jobs” to the state.
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“Our workforce that we can provide knows what they’re doing and they’re prepared and that’s why they really wanted to come to Utah—even though they looked at several other states,” he said.

Texas Instruments’ second semiconductor factory will be built to the east of its current factory along Timpanogos Highway.

“Great opportunity for us to see another great, big organization really planting their roots here inside of Utah,” said Ryan Boswell, the senior director of growth at Silicon Slopes. “We have diligent, hard workers and we’ve got people who want to make Utah better and better over and over again.”

The Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity announced Wednesday that Texas Instruments will invest $11 billion in Utah and that it’s the largest economic investment in state history.

“Companies like Texas Instruments continue to invest in Utah because of our world-class business climate and exceptional workforce,” Gov. Spencer Cox said in a press release. “TI’s new semiconductor factory will solidify Utah as a global semiconductor manufacturing hub for generations to come.”

Texas Instruments was awarded a post-performance tax reduction for the new factory. The tax credit is expected to save Texas Instruments up to $34.6 million in taxes over 20 years, the governor’s office told KSL.

“Our decision to build a second fab in Lehi underscores our commitment to Utah, and is a testament to the talented team there who will lay the groundwork for another important chapter in TI’s future,” a statement from Haviv Ilan, Texas Instruments’ incoming president and chief executive officer said.

“With the anticipated growth of semiconductors in electronics, particularly in industrial and automotive, and the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act, there is no better time to further invest in our internal manufacturing capacity,” Ilan’s statement said.

Brian Dunlap, the vice president of 300-milimeter wafer fab manufacturing operations at Texas Instruments, said the caliber of the current Lehi employees helped seal the deal.

“We have had experience with the current team in Lehi and just their innovation, their competitiveness, their willingness to go do the right thing and get the job done was a huge piece of us saying, ‘Hey, we can go develop this workforce,’” Dunlap said in an interview with KSL.