The German government is preparing billions of euros of new investments into the nation’s semiconductor industry, two months after Intel Corp shelved plans to build a 30 billion euro (US$31.6 billion) chip factory in Magdeburg, Germany.
The new funds would be provided to chip companies to develop “modern production capacities that significantly exceed the current state of the art,” Annika Einhorn, a spokesperson from the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, said in a statement on Thursday.
The subsidies are expected to total about 2 billion euros, said two people who attended an official event about the funding plans this week and speaking on condition of anonymity.
Photo: Bloomberg
The sum would be in the “low single-digit billion euro range,” a spokesperson for the ministry said in response to a query from Bloomberg News, declining to be more specific.
The ministry had published a call for chips companies to apply for new subsidies earlier this month, although the final figures are still in flux. A new government is set to be elected in February and would likely plan its own budget, leaving uncertainty for the chip companies now applying for the subsidies.
Governments around the world have been investing public funds in the chip industry as part of an effort to localize production of components that control everything from cutting-edge artificial intelligence to everyday gadgets. The push comes after COVID-19 pandemic era supply disruptions and as rising tensions between the US and China over Taiwan could interfere with a key source of the essential technology.
The European Chips Act, passed last year, aims to strengthen the bloc’s semiconductor ecosystem and double its market share to 20 percent of global production capacity by 2030.
Germany’s chip sector has faced two major setbacks. Intel’s 30 billion euro chip factory in Magedeburg was on track to be the biggest project supported under the EU’s Chips Act with 10 billion euros in subsidies, but the troubled US company postponed its plans in September.
Wolfspeed Inc. and ZF Friedrichshafen AG also withdrew a planned chips venture in western Germany.
The first rounds of German subsidies under the EU’s Chips Act were granted to Intel and a joint venture between Infineon and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in Dresden, Germany.
Germany’s economic ministry wants to use the newly proposed funds to subsidize 10 to 15 projects across a range of fields, including the production of raw wafers and the assembly of microchips.
“The funded projects should contribute to a strong and sustainable microelectronics ecosystem in Germany and Europe,” Einhorn said.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
RSS