SHERMAN, Texas (KXII) - On enough land to fit 24 football fields, TI will build one of the largest chip manufacturing facilities in the state, putting Sherman on the map.
“If you look at Sherman’s history, we’ve always kind of been a sleepy town,” said Sherman Mayor David Plyler.
But all that could change as Sherman wakes up to the celebration of a record-setting project with Texas Instruments.
“This being the largest economic development project ever in the history of Texas, it shows you the magnitude of what Texas Instruments is about to embark upon,” said Governor Greg Abbott.
The company signed on to build four 300-millimeter semiconductor wafer fabrication plants, bringing 3,000 new jobs and possibly billions in investments.
“It’s hard to have a frame of reference for a 30 billion dollar investment in a town of 50,000,” said Plyler.
In November, Sherman won the bid against Singapore for the facility, keeping Texas Instruments in Texas.
“If you look at the location, and we’ve got large operations down in Dallas, so it just gives us the ability to get great scale, great leverage in terms of engineering resources, as well as our suppliers can be in one place to build and support it,” said Texas Instruments Chairman, President and CEO Rich Templeton.
The chips are used in just about any electronic, meaning Sherman could be a part of the solution to the global chip shortage.
“A subject matter area where we need economic development in Texas and in America more than any other is in chips,” said Governor Abbott. “We have great demand for it here in Texas. The world has great demand for it.”
City officials said Wednesday’s groundbreaking was decades in the making and overturned a new layer in Sherman history.
“This will be a watershed day in the city of Sherman where we began the TI project, something that’s going to change our community in numerous ways,” said Plyler. “We don’t even know how many ways at this point.”
TI expects the completion of the first facility in 2025.
So far, the CEO said no plans have changed for the facility they announced would close back in 2020.