One of the Trump administration’s key goals is keeping the United States at the cutting edge of modern technology, military and civilian, ranging from artificial intelligence to semiconductors. Several states and educational institutions have been involved in this effort as well, and various efforts to bring things like semiconductor research and manufacturing back to the United States are starting to pay off.
Case in point: Texas A&M is now to be home to a new semiconductor research & development facility. The ground was broken just recently on what will be the Texas A&M Semiconductor Institute.
- Texas A&M University broke ground on a $226 million semiconductor research and development facility in Bryan on April 9, according to Gov. Greg Abbott’s press release.
- The building, dubbed the Texas A&M Semiconductor Institute, will have about 80,000 square feet of space for research, training and collaboration, TAMU System Regent Jay Graham said at the groundbreaking ceremony.
- The site will also have a sealed and enclosed clean room in one location for full-scale production, and labs for advanced technology, R&D and workforce development. Construction is expected to be complete by the first quarter of 2028, according to the TIS website.
Governor Abbot was present for the ground-breaking. And they aren’t wasting any time getting this thing going.
The labs will focus on process and tooling development, metrology, packaging, radio frequency, photonics, testing and evaluation. Additionally, the facility will include a skilled-trade lab as part of efforts to develop the state’s semiconductor workforce training.
The clean room would also feature purity ratings of 100 and 1000 classes, and 300mm equipment.
“It is designed to connect research, industry and workforce at scale,” Hegar said. “This facility delivers on that mission. Students and individuals have opportunities in training in our clean rooms, work alongside industry and move directly into high-demand, high-paying careers. That is how you build a workforce and strengthen an industry.”
Now this is the kind of thing American higher education should be doing.
Read More: Apple’s $400M Bold New Bet on US-Made Sensors and Circuits
New Problem: Tech Execs Warn Helium Shortage Could Halt Chipmaking
Funding for this came in part from the Texas CHIPS Act, passed to encourage this kind of development. The new facility will be located on the university’s Rellis campus, about eight miles from the main Texas A&M campus. The university has already invested about $1.5 billion in the site, located alongside the existing Rellis campus facilities, already working on transportation, energy, and military technologies.
For too long, we’ve been reading and watching as American higher education went insane, with the proliferation of Underwater Ethnic Dog-Polishing studies and even degree programs. There are any number of ways to reverse this, but that’s an argument for another time. Texas A&M, in this endeavor, is showing us the way forward; a state-university partnership intended for cutting-edge research in semiconductors and related technologies, on an American campus, hopefully carried out with American raw materials; after all, “mine, baby, mine” is now the order of the day, with new mineral resources being developed at a rate that would have seemed unlikely only a year ago.
It’s a great sign of a new American technological ascendency.
Editor’s Note: President Trump is leading America into the “Golden Age” as Democrats try desperately to stop it.
Help us continue to report on President Trump’s successes. Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.
