In the past two years, many countries and regions have been actively attracting semiconductor giants to build new fabs. GF, the world’s fifth-largest wafer foundry, also announced a new investment plan today, in conjunction with European STMicroelectronics Invest in the construction of a fab, which mainly produces chips with 18nm process.
The predecessor of GF GlobalFoundries was the wafer manufacturing department separated from AMD, but now AMD’s shareholding has been emptied and 100% of the shares are held by the investment fund of the United Arab Emirates. Netizens joked as AMD’s ex-girlfriend, and now it is still AMD’s foundry 14/ 12nm process chip. GF’s previous financial situation was also very bad, but in the past two years, the global semiconductor chips have been tense, and the United States has paid more and more attention to self-produced chips. GF has also seized the opportunity for development. In addition to increasing production capacity in the US market, it is also actively expanding overseas factory, and it’s a major strategic layout this time to co-build European factory with STMicroelectronics.
According to the announcement of the two parties, the new fab is planned to have a full capacity of 620,000 12-inch (300mm) wafers per year, of which STMicroelectronics holds 42% and GF holds the remaining 58%. As a project that STMicroelectronics is involved in, the new factory will also use FD-SOI (fully depleted silicon-on-insulator) process technology and is scheduled to be fully operational by 2026.
The location of the new factory is right next to ST’s factory in Crolley, France. The most advanced process is planned to be 18nm, which will mainly meet the needs of semiconductors in the fields of automobiles and the Internet of Things. The two companies did not mention the specific investment amount. Some reports said it was 4 billion euros, and some said it was 5.7 billion euros, but one thing is certain – this time the new fab has received EU and France Financial support, and significant support, shows that the European Union’s banknote capacity is one of the key reasons for factories to settle down.
Previously, in order to compete with the US $52 billion chip subsidy bill, the EU also introduced a subsidy bill worth 45 billion euros, hoping that semiconductor companies will build factories, with the goal of mastering 20% of the world’s chip production capacity by 2030.
