This week, New York-based advanced chipmaker GLOBALFOUNDRIES began a major Asia-Pacific production expansion with the groundbreaking of a new fabrication facility (fab) in Singapore. The new factory is being funded by an investment of S$5 billion (over $4 billion) by GLOBALFOUNDRIES itself, in cooperation with the Singapore Economic Development Board and several co-investors.
A virtual groundbreaking ceremony was attended by Singapore’s Minister for Transport and Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations S. Iswaran, Singapore sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Company Managing Director and Group CEO H.E. Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, along with UAE Ambassador to Singapore H.E. Jamal Abdulla Al Suwaidi; Singapore Ambassador to the UAE H.E. Kamal R Vaswani; Singapore Economic Development Board Managing Director Chng Kai Fong; GLOBALFOUNDRIES Board Chairman Ahmed Yahia Al Idrissi; and company executives including CEO Tom Caulfield; CFO David Reeder; SVP and Head of Global Operations KC Ang.
With global demand for chips at an all-time high (and logistical disruptions adding to post-pandemic supply imbalances), GLOBALFOUNDRIES has planned capacity expansions at all of its manufacturing sites in the U.S., Germany and now, starting with the construction of phase one of its 300mm fab expansion, Singapore. Upon completion, the new fab will add capacity for 450,000 wafers per year, bringing the company’s Singapore campus up to approximately 1.5 million (300mm) wafers per year.
The new fab will be the most advanced semi manufacturing facility in Singapore and will further enhance GF’s ability to provide its feature-rich RF, analog power, non-volatile memory solutions. GF is adding 250,000 square feet (23,000 square meters) of cleanroom space and new administrative offices. The new fab will create 1,000 new high-value jobs such as technicians, engineers and more. With construction already underway, the Fab is planned to ramp in 2023.
“GF is meeting the challenge of the global semiconductor shortage by accelerating our investments around the world. Working in close collaboration with our customers and the Government of Singapore is a recipe for success that we are pioneering here and looking forward to replicating in the U.S and Europe,” said GF CEO Tom Caulfield. “Our new facility in Singapore will support fast-growing end-markets in the automotive, 5G mobility and secure device segments with long-term customer agreements already in place.”
“We are committed to partnering [with] industry leaders such as GlobalFoundries to address the global demand for semiconductors, especially in growth areas such as artificial intelligence and 5G. The semiconductor industry is a key pillar of Singapore’s manufacturing sector, and GlobalFoundries’ new fab investment is testament to Singapore’s attractiveness as a global node for advanced manufacturing and innovation. It will help GlobalFoundries’ customers to strengthen the resilience of their supply chains, and also add to the vibrancy of our economy through the creation of good jobs for Singaporeans and business opportunities for our local enterprises,” said Dr. Beh Swan Gin, Chairman of the Singapore Economic Development Board.
What’s in the fab pipeline
Earlier this month, SEMI, the trade group representing some 2,400 companies across the global electronics manufacturing and design supply chain, issued its quarterly World Fab Forecast report, which revealed that global semiconductor manufacturers will have begun construction on 19 new high-volume fabs by year-end, and another 10 in 2022 in a race to keep up with global chip demand.
China and Taiwan account for the majority of these factories, with eight each, followed by the Americas with six, EMEA with three, and Japan and Korea with two each. Fabs that produce 300mm wafers will account for most of these new facilities. Equipment installations for factories typically don’t begin until up to two years after groundbreaking.
“Equipment spending for these 29 fabs is expected to surpass $140 billion over the next few years as the industry pushes to address the global chip shortage,” said Ajit Manocha, SEMI president and CEO. “In the medium and longer term, the fab capacity expansion will help meet projected strong demand for semiconductors stemming from emerging applications such as autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and 5G to 6G communications.“
