Ericsson pumped in an additional $50 million to accelerate production at its US-based 5G smart factory, adding to an initial outlay of $100 million in 2020.

The Swedish vendor announced the investment at an event at its USA 5G Smart Factory in the state of Texas yesterday (20 May) which was attended by customers and government officials.

Ericsson stated the additional funding will be used to address demand for 5G infrastructure as part of its Made in the USA programme, an element of President Joe Biden’s Build America Buy America Act which was signed into law three years ago.

Yossi Cohen, president and head of Ericsson North America, stated the funding will be used to speed production of its advanced Massive MIMO radios and RAN compute platform.

The expanded 300,000-square-foot factory will have more than 500 employees.

Ericsson closed its North American field services division in 2023 due to lower operator spending on 5G networks, though it won a $14 billion open RAN deal with AT&T.