Secretive San Francisco company eyes multibillion-dollar semiconductor project in Bryan

A secretive San Francisco-based startup is eyeing a multibillion-dollar semiconductor manufacturing project in Bryan, about 100 miles east of Austin, that could bring as many as 2,000 jobs to a 288-acre site owned by Texas A&M University. The long-term investment figures being mentioned are almost unheard of in these parts — over $100 billion.

Over the last several weeks, public officials from Texas A&M, the city of Bryan, Brazos County and other entities have largely remained mum as the project from America's Foundry Bryan LLC has gone through the process of obtaining public subsidies.

Those same officials have released limited details of the project, such as its size, scope and potential financial impact — but they haven't provided information about the company's principals or precisely what it would be doing.

According to documents, the project would equate to an investment of at least $10 billion on a 288-acre undeveloped parcel at the Texas A&M RELLIS Education and Research campus — but there are indications that's just a sliver of what's planned.

America's Foundry Bryan LLC has applied for incentives from the Bryan Independent School District through the Jobs, Energy, Technology and Innovation Act, essentially the replacement for the state's controversial Chapter 313 incentive program. Documents made public on July 8 by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Office offer some more clues about who is behind the company —?and what specifically is planned.

America's Foundry Bryan LLC was incorporated in May and is a subsidiary of San Francisco-based Substrate Inc. There isn't much information publicly available about Substrate, outside of the name of its CEO and founder, James Proud.

It's unclear if he's the same James Proud who is a Peter Thiel fellow and founder of Hello Inc., a prominent sleep tracking app that reached a valuation of between $250 and $300 million, and Config, which last year announced $5 million in funding from prominent backers to make hardware development smoother.

Substrate's Proud didn't immediately respond to a call and text message seeking comment.

Substrate noted in the documents that its research and engineering teams are located in San Francisco. It said it initially looked at several states for the project but has narrowed the search to Texas, Oregon and New York.

Financial incentives are said to be key. In Texas, they would come from Brazos County, the city of Bryan, the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund, Texas Enterprise Fund, Texas Enterprise Zone Project, Texas Skills Development Fund and the U.S. Chips Act — and the process of granting them is underway and in motion.

Whoever is behind the project is eyeing a massive investment, according to the documents. That includes at least 3 million square feet for advanced semiconductor manufacturing, including administrative buildings, central utilities buildings and infrastructure, machine shops, receiving and warehousing facilities, and site and roadway infrastructure. It also includes land improvements, equipment and tools used in semiconductor manufacturing, materials and equipment in support buildings and any other tangible assets.

While the application notes a minimum investment of $50 million and 35 jobs, with an average salary of $71,000, the company pledged to create 2,000 employees by 2035 and invest a total of $108.5 billion — $8.5 billion in construction costs and $100 billion in machinery and equipment — by 2041, according to the documents. That total does not include construction jobs and other fallout economic impact accrued by the project. It promises a 2024 construction start date and a 2030 start for commercial production.

Substrate is said to have entered into multiple non-disclosure agreements with entities in states it's considering. The company also has a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Texas A&M indicating interest in a collaborative investment, which was called "a compelling factor for America’s Foundry Bryan to locate in Texas and is dependent on receiving acceptable financing and governmental incentives," according to the documents.

The size of the potential incentive package is tough to calculate. While officials have publicly proclaimed that the company's investment would double the city's taxable income, it would come with a massive offset of various city, county and school taxes over a 10-year-period. The company has already been approved for tax abatements from the city of Bryan and Brazos County, and could earn millions more through the JETI program, according to documents.

Should the project come to fruition, it would mark another step toward establishing the state among the country's biggest semiconductor hubs. In the Austin area, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is widening its long-time presence with a $45 billion investment at its existing site in North Austin and a new site in Taylor, while Texas Instruments Inc. is working on a massive facility in Sherman, near Dallas.

In addition, it might behoove Texas A&M to bump up its investment in the industry. The state Legislature last year provided more than $660 million to Texas A&M and the University of Texas to help fund semiconductor advanced research and development facilities in the state.