24/10/2026
BAGUIO IS NOT JUST ABOUT TOURISM - IT'S ALSO PART OF THE GLOBAL CHIP INDUSTRY
While Baguio City is widely known for its cool climate, tourist attractions, and strawberry taho, the City of Pines is also home to a major American semiconductor company that has been part of the city's industrial landscape for more than four decades.
Texas Instruments (TI), a global semiconductor company headquartered in the United States, established its manufacturing operations in Baguio City in 1979, making the city part of the international electronics industry long before smartphones and other modern digital devices became commonplace.
Located along Loakan Road, the company's facility specializes in semiconductor assembly and testing, processes that help prepare integrated circuits for use in electronic products and systems.
These tiny components play important roles in modern technology, including automotive electronics, industrial equipment, communications, and consumer electronics. Although the chips themselves are often too small to notice, they help make many of the devices and systems people rely on every day possible.
Baguio's contribution to the semiconductor industry also helped strengthen the Philippines' position as an electronics manufacturing destination. In 2007, Texas Instruments announced plans for a new manufacturing facility in Clark, Pampanga, with the performance of its Philippine operations and the quality of its workforce among the factors supporting its continued investment in the country.
Beyond its role in manufacturing, Texas Instruments' decades-long presence highlights another side of Baguio that is often overshadowed by tourism: its participation in high-tech industries and global supply chains.
The company's history in the city also reflects the contribution of local workers, technicians, engineers, and other professionals whose skills help support an industry connecting the Philippines to markets around the world.
More than just a destination for tourists and students, Baguio has also been a part of the global technology industry since 1979, a little-known piece of trivia that adds another dimension to the story of the City of Pines.
Did you know that Baguio City has been part of the global semiconductor industry for this long?
