A company that makes the specialized lasers in Apple’s iPhone facial recognition technology is considering Sherman for a new $3 billion plant that would produce wafers for semiconductor chips.
In an application submitted this week to Sherman ISD seeking tax breaks, Finisar said it’s weighing Sherman and three other sites for a semiconductor wafer fabrication facility that would create 700 jobs. The company expects to begin construction in 2025 and launch commercial operations in 2028.
Silicon wafers produced at the plant would be used to power electronics in electric vehicles, said Mark Lourie, global vice president of corporate communications and brand development for Coherent Corp., Finisar’s parent company.
The company’s Chapter 313 application would cap its property taxes for a decade based on an $80 million valuation, a figure that’s well below the expected multibillion-dollar investment. Chapter 313 — the section in state tax code that gives school districts authority to limit taxes it collects as a way to encourage business investment — is scheduled to expire at the end of this year.
“Given Texas’ high property tax rates, the Sherman location is not competitive without a 313 agreement,” the company said in its application, which Sherman ISD approved.
Finisar said Sherman is competing with other company-owned sites in three other locations. The Sherman site is undeveloped property on Finisar’s existing 76.7-acre campus along U.S. Highway 75.
The company expects to decide on a location within the next year, Lourie said via email.
In less than a year, Sherman has emerged as a rapidly growing hub for the semiconductor supply chain. Semiconductors are the tiny chips that power modern computers and other electronic devices found in everything from phones and cars to industrial machinery.
A year ago, Dallas-based Texas Instruments chose Sherman to invest up to $30 billion to build as many as four new semiconductor fabrication plants. And this summer, Taiwanese-owned silicon wafer builder GlobalWafers announced it would build a $5 billion plant in Sherman to produce wafers used in the chip-making process.
GlobalWafers broke ground recently.
What isn’t clear is whether the state comptroller’s office, which approves Chapter 313 agreements, will consider Finisar’s application. The comptroller had set a summertime deadline for applications, but companies continue to submit them. Hundreds of companies have lined up for tax breaks for projects extending as far out as 2043.
The Texas Legislature is likely to consider a replacement program for Chapter 313 when its session begins next month.
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