COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – The Texas Semiconductor Summit this week brought some big names to town for a fireside chat on Thursday.

U.S. Representative Michael McCaul and U.S. Senator John Cornyn spoke with a group of industry leaders and professionals at the Texas A&M Hotel and Conference Center to discuss the future of the semiconductor industry in America. It was a packed room of professionals, researchers, and policymakers when the congressmen took the stage, highlighting the need for collaboration and innovation.

Sen. Cornyn and Rep. McCaul were early in ringing alarm bells about the need to bring this manufacturing back to the U.S. in 2020. It was kicked off when a car shortage hit the nation, citing a shortage of semiconductors, also known as chips. This is when the CHIPS Act was born and has only continued to expand. Texas approved its own CHIPS Act just two years later, and since, $450 billion has been invested in the industry across the country.

Sen. Cornyn spoke to some incredible movement in the state to get this industry up and running.

“We’ve seen nearly $60 billion in investments and roughly 25,000 jobs created in Texas alone as a result of this legislation,” he said. “Texas A&M, and our colleges and universities, provide critical brain power in terms of the research and development but also in terms of the training that’s necessary for these good well-paying jobs.”

Rep. McCaul said it was vital their colleagues and the American people understood why this push was important.

“Taiwan currently manufactures 90% of the advanced global supply of chips, advanced chips. Everything from your phone to your kitchen appliances to your automobile, to our most advanced weapon systems. It is a national security asset that we can no longer afford to offshore to countries that are at risk from our adversaries like China,” urged Rep. McCaul. “AI technology is the future of warfare. They will be unmanned aircraft on the ground and in the water so air, land, and sea, will be all almost robotic. If you think about it, we have this great power competition with China on AI technologies and in quantum computing. We have to compete with them and win. Otherwise, they get there first and they are seeking global, economic, and military domination.”

With some of the greatest minds on the project, the congressman teased the idea that in the future, Central Texas and Aggieland could be home to a National Institute Center for Semiconductors.

“There are companies right here in College Station that I think are on the cusp of some great innovations. A&M with the engineers and scientists, I think that will play in large part in why the center will come here because of the workforce talents and the engineers that are at Texas A&M and the University of Texas,” Rep. McCaul added.

A Samsung facility is underway, just outside Austin in Taylor, to manufacture and package semiconductors. This project alone expects to produce 20% of the world’s supply of semiconductors by 2030.

Records show a cutting-edge venture is coming to RELLIS Campus, promising to be a $10 billion investment called America’s Foundry Bryan, LLC/ Project Factory One. The LLC application filed with the Texas Secretary of State shows this promising even more advanced semiconductor manufacturing right from Aggieland.

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