Clearly getting a handle
On how the impartial Texan patent court works....
Samsung's has announced that it will be spending $3.9bn upgrading its iPhone chip-making factory in Austin. The South Korean firm said it had finalised the deal after talks with state government officials in Texas. Samsung announced the plans last week, and got the governmental go-ahead last night, according to a report from …
Just because they're currently making chips for Apple, doesn't mean that in the future, they can't use the same fabrication technology to make chips for someone else.
This is a sign that Samsung are committed to making chips, if Apple go elsewhere, then there's plenty of other people wanting chips with the specs that this plant can produce.
Opening a plant in the US makes them more US friendly, employing 'mericans in their manufacturing process will certainly curry favour with the courts when they see Samsung are supporting the US economy rather than just another 'yellow peril' (if I may use that archaic vernacular without coming across all Frankie Boyle)
It's a long game.
Really long since Samsung has had a manufacturing facility in Austin since 1996, back when Apple were making Newtons and nearly out of business. You'd think that if Samsung were prescient enough to prepare a patent fight over phones then, they would have just patented rounded corners then :)
Nobody who has ever spent time in the semiconductor industry forgets that though TI is more Dallas based than Austin. Don't forget AMD got their start with lots of fabs in Austin as well though that is probably long gone by now as well as Motorola which is Freescale now.