Samsung Electronics Co., the world's top memory chip maker, said Tuesday it plans to invest US$4 billion to upgrade its production line in Austin, Texas to better cater to growing demand for mobile devices.
Under the plan, Samsung plans to switch the production lines in the U.S. plant to exclusively churn out system semiconductors, the company said in a statement. The switched lines are set to start mass production in the second half of 2013, it added.
The increased production capacity is likely to help the company better deal with robust demand for a high-tech system on chips for smartphones and tablet computers, according to Samsung.
Samsung is one of the many South Korean firms that are nimbly moving to bank on booming demand for wireless devices.
LG Display Co. announced a 1.2 trillion won plan last month to upgrade its production line, while SK hynix Inc. in June launched a new production line to beef up production of NAND flash memory chips and dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips.
Smartphones are expected to account for roughly 60 percent of the global mobile phone market by 2015, nearly doubling from 32 percent in 2011, according to market researcher Strategy Analytics. (Yonhap)