Globalfoundries Inc, which recently merged with Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd, anticipates a “strong” recovery in the next four to five quarters, chief executive officer Doug Grose said.
“The foundry industry is growing faster than the overall semiconductor industry,” Grose said at a press event in Singapore yesterday.
Demand for chips is being driven by communications and consumer devices, the fastest growing segment in the technology sector, said Chia Song Hwee (謝松輝), chief operating officer of Globalfoundries.
Globalfoundries, controlled by Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Investment Co, plans to expand production of 300mm wafers to 1.6 million a year by 2014, it said in a statement yesterday. Also, the addition of capacity for 2.2 million 200mm wafers annually will bring the total output to 5.8 million such wafers, the company said.
Abu Dhabi’s ATIC completed the S$2.5 billion (US$1.8 billion) Chartered Semiconductor purchase last month and combined it with Globalfoundries, creating a challenger to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s two biggest makers of customized chips.
“We want to provide a real competition to TSMC,” Grose said.
It plans to do that by rolling out more advanced wafer manufacturing technologies.
Globalfoundries said it will expand its Fab 1 facility in Dresden, Germany, and the Fab 7 plant in Singapore. It will also build a new 30mm facility in Saratoga County, New York, called Fab 8.
JITTERS: Nexperia has a 20 percent market share for chips powering simpler features such as window controls, and changing supply chains could take years European carmakers are looking into ways to scratch components made with parts from China, spooked by deepening geopolitical spats playing out through chipmaker Nexperia BV and Beijing’s export controls on rare earths. To protect operations from trade ructions, several automakers are pushing major suppliers to find permanent alternatives to Chinese semiconductors, people familiar with the matter said. The industry is considering broader changes to its supply chain to adapt to shifting geopolitics, Europe’s main suppliers lobby CLEPA head Matthias Zink said. “We had some indications already — questions like: ‘How can you supply me without this dependency on China?’” Zink, who also
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) received about NT$147 billion (US$4.71 billion) in subsidies from the US, Japanese, German and Chinese governments over the past two years for its global expansion. Financial data compiled by the world’s largest contract chipmaker showed the company secured NT$4.77 billion in subsidies from the governments in the third quarter, bringing the total for the first three quarters of the year to about NT$71.9 billion. Along with the NT$75.16 billion in financial aid TSMC received last year, the chipmaker obtained NT$147 billion in subsidies in almost two years, the data showed. The subsidies received by its subsidiaries —
At least US$50 million for the freedom of an Emirati sheikh: That is the king’s ransom paid two weeks ago to militants linked to al-Qaeda who are pushing to topple the Malian government and impose Islamic law. Alongside a crippling fuel blockade, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) has made kidnapping wealthy foreigners for a ransom a pillar of its strategy of “economic jihad.” Its goal: Oust the junta, which has struggled to contain Mali’s decade-long insurgency since taking power following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, by scaring away investors and paralyzing the west African country’s economy.
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