The new Fort Worth City Hall on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024.
Amanda McCoy
amccoy@star-telegram.com
Fort Worth is offering a tax deal to a subsidiary of a Taiwanese semiconductor chip testing company to build the company’s first manufacturing plant in the United States, a $1.3 billion factory that could create more than 600 jobs.
At its meeting on Oct. 27, the Fort Worth City Council approved an offer for a 10-year tax abatement agreement for Aeternz Semiconductor Testing Corp.
What’s inside the tax deal
Aeternz is a Texas-based subsidiary of King Yuan Electronics Company, which is a supplier for chipmaker Nvidia. The company has not said what customers its U.S. plant would serve, according to Reuters.
KYEC is one of the world’s largest testing companies for semiconductor chips.
Fort Worth is offering the company a 10-year tax abatement on 65% of city taxes on real and business personal property.
The complex would be at 273 W. Everman Parkway in south Fort Worth. The project would be the largest investment in that Interstate 35W corridor, according to a presentation given to council members.
‘Clean room,’ research and testing
The complex would include a “clean room” — a highly controlled room designed to prevent conditions that can damage batches of chips, such as airborne particles or temperature fluctuation. The company would have to make that investment by the end of 2028.
The plant would also include advanced semiconductor testing equipment.
The company must create at least 630 full-time jobs by the end of 2031, with a minimum average annual salary of $80,000, and attempt to hire Fort Worth residents for at least 30% of those jobs.
$26.8M in new tax revenue
Several residents protested the tax abatement at Tuesday’s meeting, saying that the city should not support additional infrastructure that benefits artificial intelligence.
“The things that they will be testing will go into a lot of things that we use every day,” City Council member Chris Nettles said.
The deal could result in a projected $26.8 million in new tax revenue for the city.
Fort Worth is still in “active competition” with other locations for the project, according to the presentation given to council members.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Emily Holshouser is a local news reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.