Franco-Italian chipmaker STMicroelectronics and US-based GlobalFoundries will invest 5.7 billion euros ($5.8 billion) in a new semiconductor fab in France, the companies and President Emmanuel Macron’s office said on Monday.
The two companies intend to “build a new, jointly operated semiconductor manufacturing facility alongside ST’s existing 300mm facility in Crolles,” STMicroelectronics said in a statement, referring to its plant outside of Grenoble in south-eastern France.
The factory is expected to employ around 1,000 people and reach full capacity by 2026, the company added, with the factory seen as part of efforts to reduce Europe’s reliance on Asian manufacturing.
Chip fabs like that of STMicroelectronics produce integrated circuits on 300-millimeter (12-inch) circular silicon “wafers.”
GlobalFoundries and STMicroelectronics plan to produce their latest designs at the facility, with some elements as tiny as 18 nanometers – about 5,000 times smaller than the thickness of a sheet of paper.
Such chips are expected to “remain in high demand for automotive, IoT and mobile applications over the next several decades,” STMicroelectronics said.
The company added that the factory will receive “significant financial support from the French state”.
“This is the largest non-nuclear industrial investment in recent decades,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire wrote on Twitter.
“This is a big step for our industrial sovereignty.”
– Pushing for European delivery –
President Macron plans to visit the existing factory on Tuesday to outline government plans to support chip manufacturing with “more than five billion euros” as part of an industrial program dubbed “France 2030,” his office said.
He was one of the loudest voices pushing for more chip manufacturing capacity in the EU, where earlier this year the European Commission proposed a €43 billion “chip law” to boost the field.
The disruption to supply chains during the Covid-19 pandemic has focused policymakers on diversifying sources of key components.
Shortages of chips, mostly made in Asia, have held back key European industries like car manufacturing even after health restrictions were eased.
US chip giant Intel said in March it would pump up to €80 billion into its EU operations over the next decade, particularly in Germany, France and Ireland.
In France, the new Crolles factory would “contribute strongly to the goals of the European chip law, including the target for Europe to reach 20 percent of global semiconductor production by 2030,” STMicroelectronics said.
The Elysee said Crolles would become “France’s largest semiconductor manufacturing site and one of the largest in Europe”.
Monday’s announcement of the new factory was a grand prize for Macron on the day of its annual Choose France summit.
Each year, the President invites top businessmen and financiers to the magnificent Palace of Versailles outside Paris to attract foreign investment.
Finance Minister Le Maire said on Twitter that this year’s haul includes investments totaling 6.7 billion euros and more than 4,000 new jobs.
In 2021, France claimed to be Europe’s top destination for foreign investment, with 1,222 individual projects – although a study by consultancy EY found most of them were small.
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