Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), which assembles electric vehicles for Fisker Inc and Lordstown Motors Corp, yesterday signed an agreement with Taisic Material Corp (盛新材料) to invest NT$500 million (US$16.79 million) by subscribing to Taisic’s share issue through its investment subsidiary, the latest in a slew of steps made by Hon Hai to build an electric vehicle chip ecosystem.
The deal with Taisic would help Hon Hai gain better access to silicon carbide (SiC) substrates, a key component in building electric vehicles, it said in a statement.
The investment would give Hon Hai a 10 percent stake in Taisic, one of the very few Taiwanese companies capable of producing multiple types of 6-inch SiC.
Photo, Fang Wei-chieh, Taipei Times
“SiC substrate is a key part of the electric vehicle supply chain, as it accounts for a large portion of overall SiC semiconductor costs,” Bob Chen (陳偉銘), president of Hon Hai’s semiconductor business group, said in the statement.
“The company hopes to have better control of SiC substrate supply via this investment,” he said.
To broaden its semiconductor portfolio, Hon Hai in May acquired a 30 percent stake in Advanced Power Electronics Corp (APEC, 富鼎) for about NT$2.89 billion through XSemi Corp (國創半導體), a semiconductor joint venture with passive component supplier Yageo Corp (國巨).
APEC is one of the nation’s biggest makers of metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET), a device that is widely used for switching and to amplify electronic signals.
Hon Hai yesterday said that it expects this year to complete the deployment of its first SiC production line in Hsinchu at a 6-inch fab it purchased last year from Macronix International Co (旺宏電子).
That would provide a strong base for Hon Hai to tap into auto chips, it said.
Hon Young Semiconductor Corp (鴻揚半導體) helps operate the chip production line.
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