Dive brief:
- Texas A&M University broke ground on a $226 million semiconductor research and development facility in Bryan on April 9, it reported. Press release from Governor Greg Abbott.
- The building, named as Texas A&M Semiconductor Institutewill have around 80,000 square meters of space for research, training and collaboration, TAMU System Regent Jay Graham said at the opening ceremony.
- The site will also have a single-site enclosed and closed clean room for large-scale production and laboratories for advanced technology, R&D and workforce development. Construction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2028, according to the TIS website.
Diving knowledge:
Glenn Hegar, chancellor of the TAMU system, said during his remarks that the “flexible labs” would reflect “real-world production environments.”
The labs will focus on process and tool development, metrology, packaging, radio frequency, photonics, testing and evaluation. Additionally, the facility will include a specialty trade lab as part of efforts to develop the state’s semiconductor workforce training.
The cleanroom would also have 100 and 1000 class purity ratings and 300mm equipment.
“It’s designed to connect research, industry and the workforce at scale,” Hegar said. “This facility fulfills that mission. Students and individuals have training opportunities in our cleanrooms, work alongside industry and move directly into high-demand, high-paying careers. That’s how you build a workforce and strengthen an industry.”
The TSI facility will also feature support spaces such as loading docks, hazardous materials handling and storage and distribution, according to TAMU’s board of regents. Agendas for February 5.
The board allocated $205.5 million in school funds that will support a capital improvement project and related equipment, Steve Putna, TAMU’s associate vice chancellor for research and director of TSI, said in an email Monday. The funding includes $161.8 million dedicated exclusively to the building, Putna added.
“This project is about building the physical foundation needed to maintain Texas’ competitiveness in semiconductor research, manufacturing and workforce development.” Hegar said in a statement on February 5. “The scale of this investment reflects both the urgency of the moment and Texas A&M’s responsibility to provide solutions that serve the state and the nation.”
The facility is also the university’s most expensive project per square foot in its history, Hegar said in remarks Thursday.
“And why? Because we’re working on cutting-edge technologies that will impact this state, the nation and the world, and we’re proud to be here today,” Hegar said.
The school invested about $1.5 billion on the 3,300-acre site from the Rellis campus, located about eight miles from TAMU’s main campus in College Station, according to a fact sheet.
In addition to workforce development, Rellis campus facilities focus on transportation innovation, national security and defense, energy production and reliability, and artificial intelligence hypercomputing.
The university has been forming partnerships with some of the top semiconductor companies with operations in Texas, including Samsung, Tokyo Electron America i cadence.
The school also signed a memorandum of understanding with the substrate of San Franciscoaccording to the company’s application in Texas comptroller of Public Accounts. Substrate plans to establish its first semiconductor manufacturing facility and has been evaluating potential locations for its multibillion-dollar site in the United States.
Called Project Factory One, the facility would be operated by Substrate subsidiary America’s Foundry Bryan. TAMU’s pending partnership is “a compelling factor for America’s Foundry Bryan to locate in Texas and is contingent on receiving acceptable funding and government incentives,” according to the filings.
If Texas is chosen, the facility would be built on undeveloped land on the Rellis campus, according to the company’s application. TAMU did not comment on the MOU.
The TSI building is part of the Texas CHIPS Act Funding Gov. Greg Abbott signed the law in 2023 to attract industry investment and establish education and workforce development programs. The law allocated $440 million to the Texas Institute of Electronics at the University of Texas at Austin for an R&D manufacturing facility and $226.4 million to TAMU for TSI and its Center for Microdevices and Systems.
About $200 million went to the TSI building, and the remaining $26.4 million went to the Microdevices and Systems Center.
The Center for Microdevices and Systems operates primarily through the school’s AggieFab nanofabrication facility, Arum Han, associate dean for research in TAMU’s College of Engineering and associate agency director of the school’s Engineering Experiment Station, said in an email. The funds allow the university to purchase and install nanofabrication and metrology equipment, as well as improve the facility’s infrastructure.
“The purchase of additional equipment and facility upgrades are ongoing, with completion expected in the summer of 2027,” Han said.
In June 2025, state lawmakers passed legislation to add $250 million to the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund, bringing total allocations to about $948 million, according to Abbott’s Texas Chip Law Fact Sheet.
Some of the funds recently went to another university in Texas. Abbott announced on April 10 that the The University of Texas at Dallas received $700,000 through the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund for a cleanroom training project. UT Dallas plans to set up equipment to teach participants about basic cleanroom operations, safety and processing. The project aims to provide hands-on training to support and grow the semiconductor workforce in the region.
