Cailianshe, June 28 (Editor Shi Zhengcheng) Global Wafers, the world's third largest silicon wafer manufacturer, announced on Monday that it has chosen to build a wafer factory in Sherman County, Texas, USA, and is expected to be put into production in 2025.
(Source: Company Official Website)
According to the announcement, this 300mm (12-inch) wafer fab is also the first newly established similar factory in the United States in the past 20 years, with initial investment of US$2 billion. Texas Governor Greg Abbott expects that the new wafer fab will generate $5 billion in investment over the years, including subsidies for the chip industry that Congress is discussing.
For the US semiconductor manufacturing industry, this factory of Global Wafer is a key link to fill the supply chain gap. For chip manufacturing giants such as TSMC, Samsung, and Intel, which are expanding in the United States with high profile, the supply of silicon wafers is undoubtedly a key link. But like the chip foundry industry, even chip factories in the United States still need to rely on Asian production capacity.
In the global wafer map, only Shintsuki Chemical and Sumco are ranked in front of the global wafer. After the acquisition of the fourth largest company in the industry by Global wafers failed to obtain German regulatory approval this year, it quickly came up with the "Plan B" of investment and expansion. In addition to investing $2 billion to build a new factory, Global Wafer is also preparing to spend $1.6 billion to expand its existing factory.
Global wafers are expected to only meet 20% of the current wafer production capacity in the United States by 2025. The tight supply situation will further worsen as the new plants currently planned by TSMC, Samsung and Intel have higher requirements for wafers. However, with the production capacity of the new Texas wafer factory eventually reaching 1.2 million pieces per month, all planned chip factories do not need to worry about local wafer supply when they are put into production.
Global Wafer Chairman and CEO Xu Xiulan said in an interview with the media that the company has placed an order to purchase the machines and equipment needed for the Texas factory, but due to the shortage of parts, the waiting period for chip manufacturing equipment is still very long. The impact of
on the decline in consumer electronic demand, Xu Xiulan disclosed that the wafer supply contract prices for all long-term customers of the company have risen. Earlier, Sumco also confirmed that the updated orders this year will face a 30% price increase, mainly due to the rise in raw material prices.
