Texas Instruments to invest up to $1B in Clark, Baguio City chipmaking plants

MANILA, Philippines — American microprocessors manufacturer Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) plans to spend up to $1 billion to expand its facilities in Clark and Baguio City, US officials announced on Wednesday during the US-ASEAN Business Council’s meeting with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in Malacañang.

The officials said the company is set to submit in two weeks the application for registration and incentives of the expansion project which is seen to meet the $1-billion CREATE (Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises) threshold.

There will be huge opportunities in Texas Instruments’ investment and expansion plans, which would increase chip manufacturing capacity in the region, having in mind the tight global supply of chips, a statement from the Palace said.

TI’s investment plans are in line with the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 signed into law by US President Joe Biden last year, aimed at building and making historic investments that will keep the US at the forefront of innovation and technological development.

The law is seen to strengthen American manufacturing, supply chains, and national security, and invest in research and development, science and technology, and the workforce of the future to keep the United States the leader in the industries of tomorrow, including nanotechnology, clean energy, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence.

READ: Why are the US and China fighting over chips?

President Marcos welcomed TI’s investment plans, saying, “These (are) areas and sectors in the economy that we would like to be involved in.”

“And we have a great deal of [dependence] already… of our exports. We do not see why we should not further support and enhance this sector of the economy because it has (done) well,” he said.

In addition, there is good potential for the Philippines because “we have a workforce that is accustomed to working in foreign corporations.”

And on the technological side, Marcos said the Philippines has undertaken a very comprehensive program of upskilling and reskilling of workers to be able to take advantage of the new niches in the labor demand and the labor market.

Since 1984, the US-ASEAN Business Council has been the premier advocacy organization for US corporations operating within the dynamic Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

Globally, the Council’s membership of more than 170 companies generates almost US$7 trillion in revenue and employs more than 14.5 million people.

The Council is the only American organization formally recognized in the ASEAN Charter and meets annually with the finance, trade, and energy ministers at their annual meetings.

Thirty American companies join this year’s mission, the biggest delegation in more than 10 years.

READ: US targets China over semiconductors