Samsung looks like it is the next large company with plans to expand its manufacturing presence in the United States, but the company on Wednesday clearly indicated that it may not have anything to do with President Trump’s tax reform initiatives.
In a statement to CNNTech, a Samsung spokesperson said:
“Samsung began reviewing manufacturing operations early last fall to ensure that the company is able to best serve our customers.”
In effect, what Samsung is saying is that plans for a new factory were in place before Trump became president. But when rumors of the investment made their rounds last month, Trump tweeted: “Thank you, @Samsung! We would love to have you!”
Regardless of whether or not it was the tax reform initiative that pushed the company into considering an investment in the United States, Samsung could invest up to $300 million for the new factory, and about 500 jobs will be created if it goes through, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Other companies that have committed to bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. include Intel, Apple and Amazon.
Intel actually announced a $5 billion investment plan for a factory when Obama was president, back in 2011. Interestingly, Intel’s CEO last month said at the Oval Office that his company had plans for a $7 billion factory in Arizona, and gave credit to the Trump administration’s “tax and regulatory policies” for the decision to invest – in the very same factory they spoke about in 2011!
Amazon has already pledged to create more than 100,000 full-time positions in the country by 2018, and has already started opening up new fulfillment centers. That decision would have come irrespective of who won the election since it’s already been in the pipeline for a while now.
Apple has invested $1 billion in a SoftBank Group tech fund, and the Japanese investment group had already committed to hiring in the U.S.
From all of this, it does not appear that any of these companies have made their decisions based on pressure from Trump, but may nevertheless have to follow through on their commitments.
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