September 12, 2012 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. has held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new leading-edge NAND memory fab line in Xi’an, China, to be fully on line by 2014 making 10nm-class process technologies. ("10nm-class" is defined as "a process technology node somewhere between 10 and 19," the company explains.)
Initially Samsung will invest $2.3B in the fab, with a projected total investment of $7B in phases. No details were offered as to the site’s capacity or output or what the phase-in periods would be. The new site will help ease the load on Samsung’s Line 16 in Hwaseong, Korea which opened a year ago at 10,000 WPM capacity (300mm wafers).
Xi’an is home to 37 universities and 3000 R&D centers focused on advanced IT technology, the company noted, adding that it has begun collaboration programs with several local universities including scholarships to nurture local talent.