(Bloomberg) -- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung Electronics Co. have discussed building major new factories in the United Arab Emirates in coming years amid the rise of artificial intelligence, the Wall Street Journal reported.

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Executives from TSMC, the world’s largest chipmaker, have visited the UAE recently to discuss building a plant complex that could rival the company’s advanced facilities in Taiwan, the newspaper said Sunday, citing people familiar with the interactions.

South Korea’s Samsung has also sent emissaries to the Middle Eastern country recently to talk about major new operations there, the Journal said, citing separate people with knowledge of the company’s strategy.

The Journal said the discussions are in early phases and the projects might not pan out, given the array of technical and other hurdles they face. Projects of the scale under consideration could cost more than $100 billion to complete, the paper said.

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