The Temple College at Taylor Foundation donated a 68-acre tract to the University of Texas at Austin last week.
UT plans to develop the Taylor Center at the site, which is located near the Samsung Austin Semiconductor’s new six million-square-foot chip fabrication plant.
“Advancing innovation, growing education, and cultivating leadership in the semiconductor space is a major area of focus for the University of Texas, and we are excited to have a presence in the burgeoning Taylor community and the opportunity to shape further the expanding footprint of the semiconductor ecosystem in Central Texas,” President Jay Hartzell said in a news statement. “We are grateful to the Temple College at Taylor Foundation for welcoming UT into its vision for educational and economic opportunity in the region and to the City of Taylor for its commitment to supporting one of the nation’s most critical needs.”
According to UT, the Texas Institute for Electronics is considering using the site at U.S. Highway 79 for training and research with semiconductor partners.
It’s a return to Austin’s roots. UT worked with Austin and State leaders to attract Sematech, a nonprofit consortium that performed research and development to advance chip manufacturing, to Austin in 1987.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Central Texas was a hotbed of silicon chip research and manufacturing, earning Austin the nickname Silicon Hills. But it wasn’t just Austin. In the early 1990s, San Antonio attracted Sony’s first chip-making plant in the U.S. That plant, later shut down, is now home to the National Security Agency’s campus.
Today, Austin is still a major player in chip production, with companies such as AMD, Samsung, Infineon Technologies, and others.
According to a UT news release, UT’s Texas Institute for Electronics received $552 million from the Texas Legislature to compete for CHIPS Act funding. “TIE is using some of the state funds to refurbish existing fabrication plants at the original Sematech site on Montopolis Drive and at UT’s J.J. Pickle Research Campus on Burnet Road.”
“The Temple College at Taylor Foundation has embraced a thoughtful evolution of ideas that culminated in the establishment of the University of Texas at Austin – Taylor Center,” James Bartosh, president of the foundation and a UT alumnus, said in a news statement. “UT’s and Samsung’s investment in Taylor will result in the advancement of education, research and quality of life in Central Texas.”
UT has a task force to determine how to develop the site and what programs to include.
