GE Appliances plans to source a third of the chips used in products built at its Louisville, Kentucky, dryer and washing machine plant from Texas Instruments, advancing the appliance maker's goals for U.S. sourcing and supply chain resilience.
The deal will nearly double GE Appliances' spending with TI, according to an Aug. 4 press release. TI’s manufacturing facilities, including those in Lehi, Utah, and in Richardson and Sherman, Texas, will supply GE Appliances’ Kentucky plant, which is scheduled to begin production in 2027.
TI unveiled plans in June 2025 to invest more than $60 billion across its seven semiconductor fabs in Texas and Utah. GE Appliances said those facilities make TI one of the few suppliers offering high-volume U.S. semiconductor manufacturing.
GE Appliances plans to spend $3 billion on U.S. production through 2029, on top of a $3.5 billion commitment made a decade ago. The spending is part of a "zero distance" supply chain strategy aimed at bringing products closer to customers while shortening lead times and responding faster to demand shifts.
“The more that you can decrease the average length of your supply chain, that enables you to react more quickly to your consumer,” Joshua Higdon, GE Appliances’ senior director of sourcing for control systems, told Supply Chain Dive.
The company had 6,500 U.S.-based suppliers, accounting for $4.6 billion in spend in 2024, Higdon said. That’s up from $2 billion and 1,700 vendors in 2018. Still, the company can’t meet all its chip requirements from U.S.-based facilities.
“We buy chips globally from multiple different locations, and the strategy of diversifying out the supply chain to create resiliency against weather events or geopolitical events is part of the strategy, so that we can have continuity of supply,” Higdon said.
GE Appliances plans to use TI microcontrollers, Wi-Fi connectivity chips and analog components in next-generation laundry appliances, according to the release. The companies' domestic R&D teams will also work together to speed new product design.
