The Samsung effect: Tech giant transforming small Central TX town

In 2012, Samsung Inc. secured a 3.9 million-square-meter site, or the size of 500 soccer fields, in Pyeongtaek, South Korea. Over the past decade, the computer company has built multiple production facilities that kickstarted the city’s unprecedented growth. 

What was once a small military town known for open pastures and a U.S. Army base, Pyeongtaek is now considered one of the fastest growing cities in Korea with more than 1,000 people a month moving there in 2021. From recent developments in the area to a continuously high growth rate of 3.7%, Pyeongtaek’s population is projected to reach 1.2 million by 2035.

This huge growth spurt is well on its way to happening in Taylor, a small Central Texas town soon to be the home of Samsung’s new $17 billion chip factory. 

“[Samsung] took a small town in Korea, they built eight semiconductor fabs and it’s now transformed into a modern high rise, metropolitan city,” said Dave Porter, Williamson County Economic Development Partnership executive director. “They have 85,000 employees in Pyeongtaek and they mentioned to us when we went to visit that the scope of the Taylor campus will be bigger, maybe not in terms of employment, but the scope and size of the campus will be bigger.”

Porter said Samsung has plans to build up to nine semiconductor factories in Taylor, which could potentially mean a $200 billion investment in Williamson County over 20 years. County officials are preparing for this huge economic boost that’s also projected to continue positioning Texas as a leader in semiconductor manufacturing.

Although the facility is not open yet, Samsung’s impact is already starting to take effect in Taylor as big tech companies flock to the northern suburb of Austin poised to become the state’s next tech hub of the future.

Williamson County, one of the fastest growing in the U.S., is made up of 27 cities with a total population of roughly 609,000 residents, with half of them having a bachelor’s degree or higher, according to 2020 U.S. Census data. Located on the northern border of Travis County, it contains a number of booming cities, including Georgetown, Hutto and Round Rock.

Taylor is another one of those cities, with a population of about 17,000 people, Census data says. The city has an annual growth rate of 1.65% with projections of over 19,000 inhabitants by 2029. 

Porter said the rapid growth of Williamson County is what activated the WilCo Economic Development Partnership, or EDP, in recent years. In 2023, approximately 4,000 people a month moved into Williamson County.

“That’s a big deal to get to have a majority of your workforce stay in the county, and it makes it more attractive for companies to locate here because our population is growing.” Porter said.  

Although there is no set number on how many jobs Samsung could bring to WilCo, early estimates predict the company will create about 2,000 jobs in its first year of operation. Porter says these new jobs will be “good-paying,” attracting not just talent for Samsung but also the company’s suppliers. 

In addition to its nearly finished Taylor factory, Samsung also has six other manufacturing sites in Korea and one Austin campus that’s been open since 1996 and employs 2,500 people.

This question was posed to several city officials in Williamson County and they all said the same thing: land and permits. Ben White, CEO of the Taylor Economic Development Corporation, told MySA the county’s vast supply of land and ease of getting business projects approved is “night and day” compared to Austin’s Travis County.

“Williamson County is a very pro-business county,” White said. “[There’s] a lot in Travis County where it was not being pro-business, and you saw the City of Austin trying to revoke different incentive agreements and not providing incentives for projects, or making the incentive process very cumbersome. And then you look up to Williamson County, and we’re here welcoming businesses to our communities and providing help they need to relocate or expand here.”

Austin lost its 12-year streak as the fastest growing metro in 2023 and has been experiencing a mass exodus of Silicon Valley tech workers that once flocked to the city. Several news outlets like Bloomberg and Texas Monthly recently reported Austin’s increased cost of living combined with office vacancies, layoffs and plummeting home prices are some of the main drivers that could also be turning companies away. MySA reached out to Travis County for comment.

In addition to expediting permitting processes, tax break incentives in Williamson County are also attractive for big businesses through the Texas CHIPS Act. Porter explained Texas cities collect sales tax they can use for economic development incentive purposes like cash grants to companies based on rebates for employee wages, property fees and equipment.

“There’s a formula that the cities follow that if you create X amount of jobs, this is going to create a need for or create X amount of sales tax revenue and based off of that, they give a projection on cash that they can provide to a company,” Porter said. 

Samsung is not the only big tech company with a campus in Williamson County, Dell and Apple are two top tech employers for the region. Dell moved its headquarters to Round Rock in 1994 and transformed the area.

“Dell relocating their headquarters from Austin to Round Rock was essentially the day Round Rock got on the rocket ship of high growth,” said Round Rock Assistant City Manager Brooks Bennett.

Today, Dell employs 13,000 people in Round Rock and has generated almost $500 million of sales tax revenue for the city and $2 billion to the state. The city uses that revenue to build major infrastructure projects for Round Rock’s growing population. 

White said businesses are looking to Williamson County because “they want to be close to Samsung.” More recently, Samsung suppliers like iMarket America announced plans to move its headquarters to Round Rock to cater to the new Taylor chip factory. And Hironic Co., a leading Korean medical device manufacturer, was inspired by Samsung’s move and wants to open its first U.S. plant in Taylor. 

Other tech employers in Williamson County include Emerson, DCKAP, Toppan Photomask and KoMiCo. Startup Firefly recently opened a Cedar Park facility aims to help NASA return to the moon. Tesla is also eyeing a $1.5 million investment in Hutto. In addition, Anwar, an automotive supplier out of Korea, is also building a new $100 million facility north of Georgetown.

“What we found is an untapped market for other opportunities in other industry sectors, like the automotive. There are some software companies out of Korea looking at Williamson County,” Porter said. “There’s a wide range of companies and industry sectors that are interested in exploring coming to Williamson County and that’s what we want.”

Just as Round Rock has invested in its infrastructure since Dell’s arrival, Taylor is on its way to doing the same with Samsung. Dell recently extended its initial agreement with Round Rock to be in the city until at least 2099. 

Round Rock has built multiple water plants, made road improvements and even developed new city facilities like parks and libraries for residents. 

“We didn’t want to just be a bedroom community of Austin,” Bennett said. “We needed to have great jobs to be able to kind of put ourselves on a path of success and so there was a big drive to do economic development recruitment in the city far before it was the norm.”

Bennett said Round Rock officials are in talks with other WilCo cities like Taylor to help support them in their growth. Porter says with the money produced from the Samsung project, $375 million of it will go toward new roads and road improvements specifically on a road in and out of Samsung that will connect East Williamson County to Interstate 35. 

In addition to the importance of keeping the cost of living and housing lower than Austin, Porter stressed that water supply is one of the county’s main priorities.

Porter, Bennett and White all said they are excited to see Williamson County continue to grow from Samsung, noting the chip factory is just the beginning of its multi-billion dollar investment in Central Texas. White added that Taylor is looking to expand its retail, hospitality and entertainment offerings just as Round Rock has with Kalahari Resort and an outlet mall.

“If you aren’t growing, you’re dying,” Porter said. “We got to embrace the growth but we need to do it smart.”

Although some may think Taylor could become the next Austin one day, White was quick to debunk the theory and say preservation is key to maintaining Taylor’s small town charm.  

“There’s no desire to be the next Austin,” White said. “We want to be Taylor and we have a historic downtown that has been important to us, and we want to have our historic downtown be vibrant and show the true character of Taylor.”