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.
