STMicroelectronics NV, a French-Italian chipmaker, and US-based GlobalFoundries Inc are to invest 5.7 billion euros (US$5.75 billion) in a new semiconductor factory in France, the firms and French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said yesterday.
The two companies aim “to create a new, jointly-operated semiconductor manufacturing facility adjacent to STMicro’s existing 300mm facility in Crolles,” STMicroelectronics said in a statement, referring to its plant outside Grenoble in southeastern France.
Expected to employ about 1,000 people, the factory should reach full capacity by 2026, the company added, with the factory seen as part of efforts to reduce European dependency on Asian manufacturing.
GlobalFoundries and STMicroelectronics plan to produce their latest designs at the plant, with some elements as small as 18 nanometers — about 5,000 times smaller than the thickness of a sheet of paper.
Such chips “are expected to remain in high demand for automotive, Internet of Things and mobile applications for the next few decades,” STMicroelectronics said.
The company added that the factory would receive “significant financial support from the state of France.”
“This is the biggest industrial investment of recent decades outside of the nuclear industry,” French Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire wrote on Twitter. “It’s a big step for our industrial sovereignty.”
Shortages of chips mostly produced in Asia have held up vital European industries such as automakers even after COVID-19 restrictions were relaxed.
US chip giant Intel Corp in March said that it would invest up to 80 billion euros into its EU operations over the coming decade, especially in Germany, France and Ireland.
The new Crolles factory would help Europe achieve the goal of producing 20 percent of global semiconductors by 2030, STMicroelectronics said.
The Elysee Palace said Crolles “will become France’s biggest semiconductor production site and one of the largest in Europe.”
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
RSS