Today, as part of the Investing in America tour, the Biden-Harris Administration announced that the U.S. Department of Commerce and GlobalWafers America, LLC and MEMC LLC ("MEMC"), subsidiaries of GlobalWafers Co., Ltd. ("GlobalWafers"), have signed a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms (PMT) to provide up to $400 million in proposed direct funding under the CHIPS and Science Act to help onshore critical semiconductor wafer production and advance U.S. technology leadership. President Biden signed the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, a key component of his Investing in America agenda, to usher in a new era of semiconductor manufacturing in the United States, bringing with it a revitalized domestic supply chain, good-paying jobs, and investments in the industries of the future. The proposed CHIPS investment would support the construction of new wafer manufacturing facilities and the creation of 1,700 construction jobs and 880 manufacturing jobs. This proposed investment will support projects with total capital expenditures of approximately $4 billion across both states.
Silicon wafers are critical components in the semiconductor ecosystem as they are a foundational input used in all chips. There are five leading companies, including GlobalWafers, that currently hold over 80% of the global 300mm silicon wafer manufacturing market and approximately 90% of silicon wafers are sourced from East Asia today. As a result of this proposed CHIPS investment, GlobalWafers would build and expand facilities in:
Sherman, Texas: Establish the first 300mm silicon wafer manufacturing facility for advanced chips in the United States. Of note, 300mm silicon wafers are a key input used by foundries and integrated device manufacturers to manufacture leading-edge, mature-node, and memory chips.
St. Peters, Missouri: Establish a new facility to produce 300mm silicon-on-insulator ("SOI") wafers. Importantly, SOI wafers allow for significantly improved performance in harsh environments and are commonly used in defense and aerospace end uses.
Further, as part of the PMT, GlobalWafers plans to convert a portion of its existing silicon epitaxy wafer manufacturing facility in Sherman, Texas to silicon carbide ("SiC") epitaxy wafer manufacturing, producing 150mm and 200mm SiC epitaxy wafers. SiC epitaxy wafers are a critical component for high-voltage applications, notably including electric vehicles and clean energy infrastructure.
Read the full press release here.
CHIPS for America