VILLACH: Infineon Technologies on Friday opened a 1.6 billion euro ($ 1.9 billion) plant in Austria, boosting the German semiconductor company’s ability to supply power chips for cars, centers data and renewable energy production.
The plant in Villach, ready three months earlier, will manufacture chips on wafers 300mm thinner than a human hair, working in tandem as a ‘megafab’ with an existing plant in Dresden, Germany and adding up to to 2 billion euros in revenue per year. .
“The new factory is an important milestone for Infineon and its opening is very good news for our customers,” CEO Feinhard Ploss said at an opening ceremony attended by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and European Commissioner Thierry Breton .
“Our timing for adding new capacity couldn’t be better, given the growing demand for power management semiconductors,” Ploss added.
Infineon is increasing capacity at a time when global semiconductor supply chains are under extreme stress, with most major automakers forced to shut down production due to a shortage of chips.
Munich-based Infineon, the leading supplier to the auto industry, itself faced problems meeting delivery commitments after a winter storm destroyed a plant in the United States and coronavirus lockdowns disrupted operations in Malaysia.
The additional production of specialized power chips at Villach will meet the growing demand for electric vehicles, data centers and wind and solar installations. But that won’t immediately help ease the broader semiconductor crisis, analysts say. ($ 1 = 0.8490 euros)
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