On June 22, Globalfoundries (GF) announced the construction of a new fab in Singapore to expand its global manufacturing footprint.

The new fab is located in the GF Singapore campus. It is a cooperation between GF and the Singapore Economic Development Board and under the co-investment of committed customers. The total investment exceeds US$4 billion.

GF said that global demand for semiconductor chips is growing at an unprecedented rate. In the next eight years, global semiconductor revenue is expected to increase 2.1 times. In order to meet this demand, GF plans to expand the production capacity of all manufacturing plants in the United States and Germany, and begin construction of the first phase of the 300mm fab expansion project in Singapore. After the completion of this phase of the project, GF will increase its annual production capacity of 450,000 wafers, and the production capacity of the Singapore production base will increase to approximately 1.5 million wafers (300mm) per year.

The new fab will become Singapore’s most advanced semiconductor manufacturing plant and will enhance GF's ability to provide feature-rich RF, analog power, and non-volatile memory solutions. GF will add 23,000 square meters of clean room space and new administrative offices. At the same time, 1,000 new high-value jobs will be created, including technicians and engineers. The new fab is currently under construction and is scheduled to start production 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 US 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.”