The state is putting $40 million into the launch of a center to investigate new semiconductor technologies, a move aimed at keeping the high-tech research consortium Sematech in Texas.
Another $160 million will be sought through federal, state and local sources over five years for the Advanced Materials Research Center. The University of Texas System and other Texas universities will partner in the project, UT System Chancellor Mark Yudof, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Gov. Rick Perry announced Monday.
Perry said the $40 million grant will come from the Texas Enterprise Fund, formed by the Legislature last year to allow the governor to seal business deals that will create jobs in Texas.
''This is a wise investment for the taxpayers of Texas,'' Perry said. ''Sematech has been a real economic engine driving technology growth for two decades. In Texas, we just simply couldn't let it slip through our hands.''
Austin-based Sematech, a global consortium of computer chip makers, was being courted aggressively by a number of other states, Perry said. Last year, Sematech announced it had signed a $400 million research pact with the State University of New York at Albany.
Austin competed against dozens of cities to land Sematech in 1988. The consortium has about 500 employees.
''There's no question that Texas has been good to us,'' said Sematech president and chief executive officer Michael Polcari. But, he said, in today's competitive business environment Sematech would have had to consider the option of doing business in other states without the creation of the new research center.
Sematech's members include Advanced Micro Devices, Hewlett-Packard, Infineon Technologies, IBM, Intel, Motorola, Philips, TSMC and Texas Instruments.
The new Texas research center will be created immediately and will investigate advanced semiconductor and emerging technologies, including nanotechnology and biotechnology. The center is expected to produce more than 4,000 high-skilled jobs over the coming decade. It will be managed by the UT System and Sematech.
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