Intel, TSMC, Samsung, Globalfoundries – they are all building new semiconductor factories in the USA. GlobalWafers is following suit with a complex, because the foundries can't do anything without the wafer blanks. With a target capacity of up to 1.2 million wafers per month, this fab can serve a high demand.
The maximum possible capacity of 1.2 million 300mm However, wafers per month will not be available right from the start. GlobalWafers wants to slowly approach this full expansion in several expansion stages and always keep an eye on the market conditions. On paper, the fully expanded plant is the largest in the USA and is also one of the highest-capacity factories in the world.
It's all a matter of money
Why Sherman, TX? The US Chips Act, local subsidies and the customers in the vicinity, all of this has recently attracted several large companies to the southern US state. In the case of GlobalWafers, these customers are clear: Samsung and TSMC are currently building large factories in the immediate vicinity, Intel's massive construction projects in the USA in Arizona and Ohio will also require many wafer blanks, in addition there are expansion and new buildings at Texas Instruments and Globalfoundries, all investing heavily in additional capacity. GlobalWafers is explicitly looking for proximity and the US government is pleased to have a little more security of supply in its own country.
GlobalWafers will invest almost 5 billion US dollars in the USA invest, from 2025 the first products should roll out of the factory. In the best-case scenario, there should be 1,500 direct jobs, and there will be more at suppliers. The first new factory of this kind in the USA in over 20 years is quite a prestige success for the US Chips Act, which has not even been approved yet.
Many senators are pressing on this but now on the gas pedal, because Intel recently postponed the laying of the foundation stone for the plant in Ohio, which was to be widely celebrated in the media, because the funds are not yet flowing. Intel tried to calm things down after the warning shot, but the original schedule for the start of construction is still in place.