Texas Instruments Inc., a major supplier of analog chips, will invest more than $60 billion to expand its stateside manufacturing capacity.

The company detailed the plan today. According to Reuters, the initiative’s hefty price tag partly comprises previously announced investments. Texas Instruments didn’t disclose the duration of the project.

Central processing units, graphics cards and other processors represent data in the form of digital signals. Those are electrical signals that can have one of two values: 1 and 0. The former value is produced by turning a transistor on, while turning the transistor off switches its state to 0.

Analog chips of the kind made by Texas Instruments process a broader range of electrical signals. Those signals can represent not only 0 or 1 but also many other values. Analog chips don’t perform computations but rather carry out the numerous other, often simpler tasks involved in powering a computer.

Some of Texas Instruments’ analog chips are designed to power the motors inside robotic arms. Others can be used as sensors. The company also offers more specialized chips, including an integrated circuit that generates ultrasonic vibrations to clean lenses.

Power management, one of the main use cases for analog semiconductors, is another area where Texas Instruments competes. It makes chips for managing systems such as batteries and electricity distribution equipment in data centers. Earlier this year, the company partnered with Nvidia Corp. to develop more efficient power management hardware for artificial intelligence clusters.

“Nvidia and TI share the goal to revitalize U.S. manufacturing by building more of the infrastructure for AI factories here in the U.S.,” said Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang. “We look forward to continuing our collaboration with TI by developing products for advanced AI infrastructure.”

Texas Instruments offers more than 100,000 products across the various market segments where it competes. As part of the investment plan announced today, the company will build new fabs in the U.S. to make more of those products domestically. Texas Instruments says that the facilities will produce “billions” of chips for customers.

The company will spend up to $40 billion, or about two-thirds of the project’s budget, on building out a manufacturing campus in Sherman, Texas. The site currently houses two fabs. The first will start making chips later this year, while the second hasn’t yet been equipped with production equipment. Texas Instruments eventually plans to build two more fabs in Sherman.

The company will spend the rest of the project’s $60 billion-plus budget on two manufacturing campuses in Richardson, Texas, and Lehi, Utah. The two sites each host two fabs apiece. Texas Instruments plans to boost the manufacturing capacity of both campuses as part of the investment initiative.

Photo: Texas Instruments