Bringing Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing to Europe - ESMC is making it happen
ESMC will be 70% owned by TSMC
Published: 8th August 2023 | Source: Various |
TSMC, Bosch, Infineon, and NXP come together to establish ESMC, a European Joint Venture
TSMC, Robert Bosch GmbH, Infineon Technologies AG, and NXP Semiconductors N.V. have today announced the formation of ESMC, the European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, a joint venture that is designed to bring advanced semiconductor manufacturing to Europe.
The new joint venture has been created with funding from all four companies and from the European Chips Act. 50% of the funding for the company is coming from the European Chips Act and other subsidies, amounting to around €5 billion, with the remaining funding coming from TSMC, Bosch, Infineon, and NXP. TSMC will own a 70% share in the company, while Bosch, Infineon, and NXP will each own 10% of the joint venture.
Currently, ESMC is set to build a semiconductor manufacturing facility in Dresden Germany, a facility that will create around 2,000 high-tech professional jobs directly and additional jobs within supporting industries. ESMC aims to begin construction of the fab in the second half of 2024 with production targeted to begin by the end of 2027.
ESMC's planned fab is expected to have a monthly chipmaking capacity of 40,000 300mm (12-inch) wafers on TSMC’s 28/22 nanometer planar CMOS and 16/12 nanometer FinFET process technologies. While these nodes are not using TSMC's leading edge manufacturing technologies, they are ideal for creating chips for Europe's automotive and industrial sectors. This fab will also help to grow the supply chains that will make Europe more attractive for future semiconductor investments.
Below is what TSMC's CEO, Dr CC Wei, had to say about the formation of ESMC.
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.
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.
While the formation of ESMC will not see TSMC's most advanced lithography technologies come to Europe, the company lays the groundwork for major growth in Europe's semiconductor manufacturing capabilities and future investments in semiconductor manufacturing. ESMC's planned fab will greatly increase the supply of chips that are available to European manufactures, which is great news for a large number of industries.
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