In an era of rapidly accelerating technology, nations across the world are racing to keep up with evolving technology, and Utah’s Silicon Slopes have become a massive home for semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S.
Most modern technology can be traced back to the semiconductor, which was invented in the United States in 1947, when even its founders couldn’t have imagined the full scale of its future use.
Today, semiconductors, the building blocks for modern technology, are found in practically every electronic device, yet the US Department of Commerce points out that America only produces about 10% of the world’s supply, while relying on East Asia for 75% of the global production.
It’s no surprise that in 2022, Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act, which was signed by then-President Joe Biden to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing in an effort to reduce the country’s reliance on foreign suppliers and fortify national security.
Following the passage of the act, several major semiconductor manufacturers began investing heavily in U.S. domestic production, including Texas Instruments (TI), the largest foundational semiconductor manufacturer in the U.S., which announced plans to deploy $60 billion on that front in 2025.
The investment “will build seven state-of-the-art factories across Utah and Texas,” Brian Dunlap, TI’s vice president of 300mm Fab Operations, said. “We are the driving factor for bringing [foundational] semiconductor manufacturing back to America.”
“If you think about AI or a GPU and some of these companies like NVIDIA … [they] are driving these high-end processing — think about that as the brain,” Dunlap said. “TI, our foundational chips are like the nervous system, we support that.”
TI chips are found in smartphones, AI data centers, vehicles, military defense systems, and more electronic products.
“Anything that has an on or off switch, a battery, or plugs into a wall, essentially has at least one TI chip in it,” Dunlap said.
According to Marlin Eldred, Lehi’s director of economic development, TI’s two facilities come with an “$11.5 billion investment here in the state of Utah,” among other perks.
“They’ve already committed to the state of Utah at least 800 jobs being created in the new plant,” Eldred said. “We’re also seeing a lot of secondary businesses that supply support to Texas Instruments have already reached out, and they’ve already been looking at Lehi and the surrounding communities.”
While TI is focused on ramping up domestic production, Dunlap said they’re just as motivated to elevate the next generation of Utah students.
“We are so excited about our $9 million investment [in] the local school district to … drive the state’s first community-driven STEM program for K-12 students,” Dunlap said.
That investment goes far beyond the lectures in the classroom, according to Eldred.
“It’s not just teaching a student a math problem, it’s actually now showing them how that math problem relates to real life,” Eldred said. “It’s instrumental in helping our employment base, helping our children grow in those industries and understanding what are those opportunities for growth within the STEM industries.”
These students may be the upcoming innovators tasked with defining the next frontier of America’s technological future.
