A robotic arm moves 300 mm silicon semiconductor wafers interior a sorting machine in a cleanroom at a Globalfoundries Inc. semiconductor fabrication plant.
Liesa Johannssen | Bloomberg | Getty Photos
U.S.-headquartered GlobalFoundries launched Tuesday the opening of its $4 billion expansion fabrication plant in Singapore as the contract chipmaker expects “development in search recordsdata from for vital semiconductor chips.”
“I’m assured that over the next decade, this replace will double but again,” Thomas Caulfield, president and CEO of GlobalFoundries, suggested CNBC in an interview earlier than Tuesday’s opening.
Some catalysts consist of “unique and disturbing solutions, the overall AI and the device in which that can replace society” — which will require chips and comprise search recordsdata from, he outlined.
“Car appears to be staying solid. Cloud for synthetic intelligence appears to be solid. Industrial is conserving in there. Anything else particular person connected is calm feeble,” Caulfield said Monday.
Foundries are companies which will most possible be diminished in measurement by semiconductor companies to make chips. GlobalFoundries makes semiconductors designed by the likes of Qualcomm, MediaTek and NXP Semiconductors, and serves roughly 200 customers globally.
Its chips are stumbled on in smartphones, laptops, vehicles, virtual truth systems, online sport consoles, clear speakers, and are furthermore feeble in AI and 5G.
Singapore provides 11% of the world’s semiconductors, per the Singapore Semiconductor Enterprise Association.
Partnership with Singapore
GlobalFoundries is the world’s third-supreme foundry by earnings at the support of TSMC and Samsung, per market intelligence provider TrendForce.
The 23,000-sq. meter fab facility in Singapore will scheme better the firm’s world manufacturing footprint and boost its ability to wait on customers across its manufacturing sites in three continents, the clicking launch said.
“As Singapore’s most evolved semiconductor facility to this level, the expansion fab will make an further 450,000 wafers (300mm) yearly, elevating GlobalFoundries Singapore’s overall skill to roughly 1.5 million wafers (300mm) each yr,” it added.
GlobalFoundries obtained Singapore’s Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing and took over its fabs in 2010.
The space’s latest manufacturing skill is 720,000 (300mm) wafers and 692,000 (200mm) wafers a yr. Such wafers are the elemental fabric for manufacturing chips.
The unique facility will comprise about 1,000 “excessive-tag” jobs in Singapore, of which 95% will consist of equipment technicians, course of technicians and engineers, the firm said. GlobalFoundries currently hires roughly 4,500 workers at the Singapore space.
GlobalFoundries launched in June 2021 the construction of a brand unique fab on its existing Singapore campus, in partnership with the city-affirm’s Financial Type Board, in negate to meet world search recordsdata from for semiconductor chips at the 2nd.
The following June, the Nasdaq-listed semiconductor manufacturer said its first tool had been moved into the Singapore facility. It furthermore has manufacturing services and products in the U.S. and Germany.
“GlobalFoundries had a prolonged partnership with the Singapore authorities. The Singapore authorities has industrial insurance policies about bringing excessive tech manufacturing, excessive tech innovation to the dwelling. And it’s why you peek so many wide companies having manufacturing here,” Caulfield suggested CNBC’s Sri Jegarajah.
“What occurs now would possibly perhaps presumably well presumably be when completely different nations heed how important semiconductor manufacturing is to their dwelling, for sovereign security, for provide chain, for economic security, they too [will] settle on to enjoy semiconductor manufacturing, and that they settle on to adjust their industrial insurance policies to aid comprise that competitive panorama where manufacturing and folks regions are economically competitive,” he added.
The expansion will furthermore enforce AI tools to enhance productiveness similar to wafer pattern recognition to auto-classify and space defects in wafers, said GlobalFoundries.
Correction soon?
Smartphone and PC makers are currently grappling with excess inventories of memory chips after stockpiling them during the pandemic-induced development. As inflation soared, shoppers were cutting support on these items and prices for memory chips enjoy fallen.
The likes of Taiwanese semiconductor foundry TSMC and South Korea’s Samsung enjoy reported declines in 2nd-quarter earnings as feeble search recordsdata from for memory chips persevered.
“We enjoy viewed in the 2nd quarter of this yr, inventories at semiconductor companies calm climb nonetheless at a a lot muted payment,” said Caulfield. “The coolest recordsdata is we now enjoy furthermore viewed the inventory further down the provide chain, similar to system companies, start to stride down. And so presumably there would possibly perhaps be a small bit bit of a glimmer here that inventory is beginning to steady.”
Nonetheless, world inflation has to be under regulate first sooner than hobby charges can come down and particular person spending would possibly perhaps presumably well just also be wholesome but again, in particular in China, he said.
