U.S. closing critical gap in domestic chipmaking supply chain — GlobalWafers given $400 million to make wafers in the U.S.

GlobalWafers
(Image credit: GlobalWafers)

When you want to capture a sizeable share of the semiconductor production market in a few years, you must ensure that there are wafers to process. The U.S. government is taking care of this. On Wednesday, GlobalWafers and the Biden administration announced that the company is set to receive $400 million to support projects in Missouri and Texas, where GlobalWafers will make wafers that will eventually be used by Intel, Samsung Foundry, and TSMC.

GlobalWafers aims to invest some $4 billion in its facilities in Missouri and Texas, a sum that highlights that both projects will be large and will produce vast amounts of wafers. Located in St. Peters, Missouri, and Sherman, Texas, these two facilities will be instrumental in supporting expanded operations of Samsung Foundry and Texas Instruments in Texas and other U.S. semiconductor fabs that are set to start production in the coming years. The two facilities will create about 880 manufacturing jobs and 1700 construction jobs.

The Texas project, already in progress, is the larger of the two, and it will produce 300-mm wafers for advanced processors, such as those made by Intel, TSMC, and Samsung. Meanwhile, part of GlobalWafer's current silicon epitaxy wafer manufacturing plant in Texas will be repurposed to produce 150mm and 200mm Silicon Carbide (SiC) wafers for high-voltage applications. By contrast, the St. Peters, Missouri factory will make 300-mm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers, an exciting turn of events as no fab currently uses SOI technologies in the U.S.

"With the support of the Biden Administration, we are honored to be bringing to American shores the world's most cutting-edge 300mm semiconductor wafer technology, filling what the White House has called a 'key vulnerability' within the U.S. semiconductor supply chain," said Mark England, president of GlobalWafers America. "GlobalWafers is fully committed to the U.S. market, and we are excited to be playing a defining role in the nation's semiconductor rebirth."

However, the Texas project faces a potential obstacle from a nearby cement kiln project. GlobalWafers has warned that this project could jeopardize their operations, potentially leading to legal action. Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has urged the state's permitting authority to reject the cement project to allow GlobalWafers' plans to proceed without hindrance, though the outcome is unclear.

Most silicon wafers used in semiconductor production are currently made in Asia. It represents a risk for fabs in Europe and the U.S. GlobalWafers' investments, supported by the U.S. government, will diversify wafer production and simplify logistics for logic and memory producers in America.

Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

  • MacZ24
    This has yet to prove it is economically viable. Especially when you flip off 1.4 billion customers.
    Reply
  • JamesJones44
    MacZ24 said:
    This has yet to prove it is economically viable. Especially when you flip off 1.4 billion customers.
    1.4 billion and shrinking. It's much more profitable to push products like these to countries like India whose population and customer base is more stable.
    Reply
  • MacZ24
    JamesJones44 said:
    1.4 billion and shrinking. It's much more profitable to push products like these to countries like India whose population and customer base is more stable.

    Ah the 'shrinking population' argument again... lol.

    The fact is that US production will only be able to target US population, because will not be competitive with the production of the rest of the world. So the point about profitability and economies of scale stands.

    That is the point of putting sanctions and tariffs on China : the west can't compete.

    Also : Reshoring isn't happening
    Reply
  • JamesJones44
    MacZ24 said:
    Ah the 'shrinking population' argument again... lol.

    The fact is that US production will only be able to target US population, because will not be competitive with the production of the rest of the world. So the point about profitability and economies of scale stands.

    That is the point of putting sanctions and tariffs on China : the west can't compete.

    Also : Reshoring isn't happening
    I was talking about targeting sales to India instead China do to dropping demand over time, but whatever floats your boat with the rest of the comment.
    Reply
  • MacZ24
    JamesJones44 said:
    I was talking about targeting sales to India instead China do to dropping demand over time, but whatever floats your boat with the rest of the comment.

    India is already a target of sales of semiconductors from different countries, including China.

    If the US need to put tariffs and sanctions on China to protect itself, there is no reasons to believe its products will be competitive.

    China population will decline, but this is a very long time prospect. In the meantime, it is developping its BRI initiative that will create vastly most consumers for its products than it will lose due to population loss.

    A lot more consumers for China, a lot less for the west.
    Reply