Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said it has clinched a NT$2.52 billion (US$90.71 million) deal to purchase a 6-inch wafer fab, including facilities and manufacturing equipment, from memorychip maker Macronix International Co (旺宏), a major stride toward expanding into the auto chip business.
The iPhone assembler plans to develop and manufacture new-generation silicon carbide (SiC) chips used in electric vehicles at the fab, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told a joint news conference in Hsinchu.
Hon Hai would spend several billion dollars beyond the purchase price to expand the fab’s capacity to 15,000 wafers per month, which could supply the chips needed for three electric-vehicle models, Liu said.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
The renovations are expected to be finished by 2024, he added.
As the fab would serve as a site for research and development, Hon Hai would manufacture SiC chips at other production facilities, he said.
The acquisition of the 6-inch wafer fab at the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) signals Hon Hai’s entry into the business of “wide-bandgap semiconductors,” particularly SiC chips, and its long-term commitment to the semiconductor industry, Liu said.
The 6-inch fab would be suitable for making SiC chips, as most manufacturers are migrating production from 4-inch to 6-inch fabs, but the 6-inch fab could no longer manufacture memory chips competitively, he said.
The deal paves the way for Hon Hai to deepen its partnership with Macronix, as they explore additional opportunities in the electric-vehicle business, Liu said.
Macronix is the biggest supplier of NOR flash memory chips used in vehicles.
Reports have said that Hon Hai beat out a handful of rivals in buying the fab, as Tesla Inc joined local chipmakers United Microelectronics Co (聯電) and Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) to buy a less-advanced fab amid a persistent chip crunch.
Macronix chairman Miin Wu (吳敏求) said that he was relieved after feeling pressured over the past one-and-a-half months to strike a deal.
Some offers came in higher than Hon Hai’s, he added.
Hon Hai declined to comment on whether the company was targeting Tesla when deciding to produce SiC chips, and selecting between SiC and gallium nitride (GaN) to develop next-generation semiconductors.
With a wider band gap, SiC is superior to GaN in terms of power efficiency and reliability, which are better suited to electric-vehicle chips, Liu said in response to a reporter’s question, adding that consumer electronics tend to use GaN chips.
The acquired fab would serve as the headquarters for Hon Hai’s S Business Group, which would benefit from closer collaboration with the semiconductor companies at the science park, Liu said.
Hon Hai employs 5,000 to 6,000 workers in semiconductor-related jobs, he said.
The transaction is expected to be finalized at the end of this year, the joint statement said.
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