Posted by Hsinchu, Stuttgart, Munich, Eindhoven: TSMC, Bosch, Infineon and NXP Semiconductors on Wednesday announced a plan to jointly invest in European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ESMC) GmbH, in Dresden, Germany to provide advanced semiconductor manufacturing services.
TSMC, Bosch, Infineon and NXP will jointly invest in ESMC through a planned joint venture. TSMC will own 70% of the JV, with Bosch, Infineon, and NXP each holding a 10% equity stake, subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions.
The project is planned under the European Chips Act framework, with an aim to construct a 300mm fab foundry and meet the future capacity needs of the automotive and industrial sectors in Europe. However, the final investment decision is pending in terms of the level of public funding for this project, according to ESMC.
Total investments are expected to exceed 10 billion euros consisting of equity injection and debt borrowing, with strong support from the European Union (EU) and German government. The fab will be operated by TSMC.
The planned fab is expected to have a monthly production capacity of 40,000 300mm (12-inch) wafers on TSMC’s 28/22 nanometer planar CMOS and 16/12 nanometer FinFET process technology. This will further strengthen Europe’s semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem with advanced FinFET transistor technology and create about 2,000 direct high-tech professional jobs.
ESMC aims to begin construction of the fab in the second half of 2024 with production targeted to begin by 2027 end. About 1 trillion microchips were manufactured globally in 2020 and the EU has a 10% share of the global microchips market, according to the European chips survey findings.
“This investment in Dresden demonstrates TSMC’s commitment to serving our customers’ strategic capacity and technology needs, and we are excited at this opportunity to deepen our long-standing partnership with Bosch, Infineon, and NXP,” said Dr CC Wei, CEO of TSMC.
“Europe is a highly promising place for semiconductor innovation, particularly in the automotive and industrial fields, and we look forward to bringing those innovations to life on our advanced silicon technology with the talent in Europe,” added Wei.
“Semiconductors are not only a crucial success factor for Bosch. Their reliable availability is also of great importance for the success of the global automotive industry,” said Dr Stefan Hartung, Chairman – Bosch board of management.
“With TSMC, we are pleased to gain a global innovation leader to strengthen the semiconductor ecosystem in the direct vicinity of our semiconductor plant in Dresden,” added Hartung.
“Our joint investment is an important milestone to bolster the European semiconductor ecosystem. With this, Dresden is strengthening its position as one of the world’s most important semiconductor hubs that is already home to Infineon’s largest frontend site,” said Jochen Hanebeck, CEO of Infineon Technologies.
“Infineon will use the new capacity to serve the growing demand, particularly of its European customers, especially in automotive and IoT,” added Hanebeck.
“NXP is very committed to strengthening innovation and supply chain resilience in Europe,” said Kurt Sievers, President and CEO of NXP Semiconductors.
“The construction of this new and significant semiconductor foundry will add much-needed innovation and capacity for the range of silicon required to supply the sharply increasing digitalisation and electrification of the automotive and industrial sectors,” added Sievers.