June 10, 2025 /SemiMedia/ — GlobalFoundries (GF) announced plans to invest €1.1 billion over the coming years to double the wafer production capacity at its Dresden, Germany fab to 1.5 million wafers annually. The facility specializes in 22nm 22FDX FD-SOI low-power process technology for power and RF devices and supports 28nm, 40nm, and 55nm nodes primarily targeting automotive and IoT microcontrollers.

The Dresden fab currently operates 60,000 square meters of cleanroom space and employs about 3,200 staff. This expansion benefits from substantial financial support from the German government, including hundreds of millions of euros, and GF is pursuing an additional €1 billion funding under the EU’s Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI), approved in June 2023.

On the technology front, GF has strategic partnerships with Indie Semiconductor to develop 77GHz and 120GHz radar SoCs based on the 22FDX process for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). GF is also collaborating with Bosch on a single-chip radar sensor using the same process, and with Ayar Labs to develop the industry’s first UCIe optical interconnect chip leveraging a monolithic photonics platform.

In the competitive landscape, the German government also provides €1 billion funding to Infineon’s smart power fab in Dresden. Meanwhile, TSMC is partnering with NXP and Bosch to build the ESMC wafer fab in Dresden, focusing on 28nm and 22nm technologies, supported by a €5 billion European subsidy.

Earlier, GF announced an additional $3 billion investment in its U.S. fabs in Malta, New York, and Vermont, covering CMOS manufacturing, gallium nitride (GaN) production, and a new photonics and advanced packaging center, although U.S. government support for the Vermont fab and packaging center is being scaled back.