GLOBALFOUNDRIES Breaks Ground on New Fab in Singapore with 450K Wafer-per-Year Capacity

[AleksandarK]

GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF ), the global leader in feature-rich semiconductor manufacturing, today announced it is expanding its global manufacturing footprint with the construction of a new fab on its Singapore campus. In partnership with the Singapore Economic Development Board and with co-investments from committed customers, GF's more than US $4B (S$5B) investment will play an integral role in meeting the growing demand for the company's industry-leading manufacturing technologies and services to enable companies worldwide to develop and scale their business.

In a virtual groundbreaking ceremony, Singapore Minister for Transport and Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations S. Iswaran and Mubadala Investment Company Managing Director and Group CEO H.E. Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, were joined by: UAE Ambassador to Singapore H.E. Jamal Abdulla Al Suwaidi; Singapore Ambassador to the UAE H.E. Kamal R Vaswani; Singapore Economic Development Board Managing Director Chng Kai Fong; GF Board Chairman Ahmed Yahia Al Idrissi; along with GF executives including CEO Tom Caulfield; CFO David Reeder; SVP and Head of Global Operations KC Ang; SVP of Global Sales Juan Cordovez; VP of Human Resource for APAC and International Fabs Janice Lee; and VP of Technology Development in Singapore Dr. Soh Yun Siah.



The global demand for semiconductor chips is growing at an unprecedented rate, with worldwide semiconductor revenue projected to increase 2.1 times in the next eight years. To meet that demand, GF has planned capacity expansions at all its manufacturing sites in the U.S., Germany and, starting with the construction of phase one of its 300 mm fab expansion, Singapore. When complete, GF will add capacity for 450,000 wafers per year, bringing GF's Singapore campus up to approximately 1.5 million (300 mm) wafers per year.

The new fab will be the most advanced semi manufacturing facility in Singapore and will further enhance GF's ability to provide its feature-rich RF, analog power, non-volatile memory solutions. GF is adding 250,000 square feet (23,000 square meters) of cleanroom space and new administrative offices. The new fab will create 1,000 new high-value jobs such as technicians, engineers and more. With construction already underway, the Fab is planned to ramp in 2023.

"GF is meeting the challenge of the global semiconductor shortage by accelerating our investments around the world. Working in close collaboration with our customers and the Government of Singapore is a recipe for success that we are pioneering here and looking forward to replicating in the U.S and Europe," said GF CEO Tom Caulfield. "Our new facility in Singapore will support fast-growing end-markets in the automotive, 5G mobility and secure device segments with long-term customer agreements already in place."

"We are committed to partnering industry leaders such as GlobalFoundries to address the global demand for semiconductors, especially in growth areas such as artificial intelligence and 5G. The semiconductor industry is a key pillar of Singapore's manufacturing sector, and GlobalFoundries' new fab investment is testament to Singapore's attractiveness as a global node for advanced manufacturing and innovation. It will help GlobalFoundries' customers to strengthen the resilience of their supply chains, and also add to the vibrancy of our economy through the creation of good jobs for Singaporeans and business opportunities for our local enterprises," said Dr. Beh Swan Gin, Chairman of the Singapore Economic Development Board.

Semiconductor chips are more pervasive than ever, becoming one of humankind's most vital resources. From smartphones and automobiles to technology in schools and hospitals, modern society can no longer survive without them. GF is a trusted provider to more than 250 customers worldwide and is investing, in partnership with these customers and regional governments, to expand the capacity of its global manufacturing footprint to help right the demand-supply imbalance.

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[csgabe]

I hope there is no water shortage in Singapore.

 

[watzupken]

I feel all the fabs will suffer in the longer term with the massive investment to boost yields. I am not sure how long the current chip shortage will last, but considering the "shortage" is high due to supply line disruption, and the sudden spike in PC demand due to global work from home requirement over 2020, I don't know if it will continue indefinitely.

 

[Wirko]

I feel all the fabs will suffer in the longer term with the massive investment to boost yields. I am not sure how long the current chip shortage will last, but considering the "shortage" is high due to supply line disruption, and the sudden spike in PC demand due to global work from home requirement over 2020, I don't know if it will continue indefinitely.

There are also other bottlenecks in the chip supply chain, like production of substrates, production of materials for substrates, testing and packaging. Occasionally we get to hear about these but I don't ever see news about what's being done to expand the capacity of the most critical ones.

 

[Vayra86]

I hope there is no water shortage in Singapore.

Well, when it rains over there, it pores

I feel all the fabs will suffer in the longer term with the massive investment to boost yields. I am not sure how long the current chip shortage will last, but considering the "shortage" is high due to supply line disruption, and the sudden spike in PC demand due to global work from home requirement over 2020, I don't know if it will continue indefinitely.

The bigger story apparently is that chip supply has been running below demand for quite some time, since mobile took off really, and similar has been the case for memory; NAND, RAM, etc. We gained new devices and bought them all while demand for the old ones barely dropped. These industries take a huge time to adjust so they are reluctant to do so, but when they do, any oversupply won't last very long. Overall the trend is growth, growth, growth. And more new devices too - think cars, IoT, etc.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I hope there is no water shortage in Singapore.

Uhm, there's a constant water shortage in Singapore. In fact, most of their water comes from Malaysia.

Things are nearly back to normal in Taiwan now, btw.

I feel all the fabs will suffer in the longer term with the massive investment to boost yields. I am not sure how long the current chip shortage will last, but considering the "shortage" is high due to supply line disruption, and the sudden spike in PC demand due to global work from home requirement over 2020, I don't know if it will continue indefinitely.

You're aware we're using more and more ICs every year, right? This is not going to be for PC stuff anyhow, it'll be for all sorts of "niche" stuff, something GloFo has been quite good at making.

So even if the Wuhan virus hadn't happened, we would've hit all these issues sooner rather than later, albeit maybe not all at once.

 

[TumbleGeorge]

I hope there is no water shortage in Singapore.

Shortages are corresponding not only to wafers but to all materials and components.
If information for shortages is true...

 

[64K]

Shortages are corresponding not only to wafers but to all materials and components.
If information for shortages is true...

According to Jensen Huang it is. He said months ago that there is a shortage of circuit boards and components to go on video cards. There's no easy fix for the shortages.

 

[persondb]

I feel all the fabs will suffer in the longer term with the massive investment to boost yields. I am not sure how long the current chip shortage will last, but considering the "shortage" is high due to supply line disruption, and the sudden spike in PC demand due to global work from home requirement over 2020, I don't know if it will continue indefinitely.

You know that this isn't just for the PC market? Everything needs chips those days and that's only going to increase as time goes on. Aside that, many markets such as servers/datacenters have a strong boost as companies are building a lot of them and the demand will be there for a long time.

Aside that, while you are right that the spike won't last forever, PC/laptop demand will still be considerably higher than pre-pandemic levels. Many jobs are going to continue from being worked at home (it's literally a benefit to companies) and other factors that will still keep the demand high.

 

[mechtech]

Is there even enough ground for a foundry there?!?!?!

 

[Caring1]

Uhm, there's a constant water shortage in Singapore. In fact, most of their water comes from Malaysia.

So what are they doing with all that tropical rain during the wet season, letting it flow away?
I've been there during a Typhoon, it dumped more rain in a few hours than some places see in 6 months.

 

[Prima.Vera]

"the global leader" ??????

 

[Minus Infinity]

I hope there is no water shortage in Singapore.

Never say never.

These FABs shouldn't be allowed to use precious drinking water. I would say they should get their water from desalination, but that has it's own huge environmental problems. I at least hope it has to implement very strict water recycling schemes. Taiwan to my shock actually relies on Typhoons to fill its dams, which seems very shortsighted and has come back to bite them on the @ss big time. They need to implement water recycling right across the country for residential and businesses alike.

So what are they doing with all that tropical rain during the wet season, letting it flow away?
I've been there during a Typhoon, it dumped more rain in a few hours than some places see in 6 months.

It's the size of a postage stamp, dams are environmental disaster and are not the answer even if they had the space, which they don't.

 

[mechtech]

Never say never.

These FABs shouldn't be allowed to use precious drinking water. I would say they should get their water from desalination, but that has it's own huge environmental problems. I at least hope it has to implement very strict water recycling schemes. Taiwan to my shock actually relies on Typhoons to fill its dams, which seems very shortsighted and has come back to bite them on the @ss big time. They need to implement water recycling right across the country for residential and businesses alike.


It's the size of a postage stamp, dams are environmental disaster and are not the answer even if they had the space, which they don't.

Copper alloy pipes and seawater

 

[TumbleGeorge]

"the global leader" ??????

PR without VAT

 

[TheLostSwede]

So what are they doing with all that tropical rain during the wet season, letting it flow away?
I've been there during a Typhoon, it dumped more rain in a few hours than some places see in 6 months.

Where and how do you suggest they collect it? It's not as if Singapore is a huge place. They use a lot of NEWater...

NEWater - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Water supply and sanitation in Singapore - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Taiwan does at least have some catchment areas where they try and collect the rainwater, but it doesn't always rain in the right places.

Both nations, as well as many other nearby nations can get insane amount of rain over short periods of time either due to monsoon season or due to typhoons. I've experienced 500mm+ in a day and it can rain twice that and then some if you're unlucky.

However, the issue is catching and storing it in an efficient way, as neither nation has any ground water to speak of and in the case is Singapore, a lot of it would be brackish.

Never say never.

These FABs shouldn't be allowed to use precious drinking water. I would say they should get their water from desalination, but that has it's own huge environmental problems. I at least hope it has to implement very strict water recycling schemes. Taiwan to my shock actually relies on Typhoons to fill its dams, which seems very shortsighted and has come back to bite them on the @ss big time. They need to implement water recycling right across the country for residential and businesses alike.

Taiwan has a lot of issues with water supply, outside of being able to collect enough when it rains. Obviously Taiwan doesn't only rely on typhoons, as this time of the year is what they call the plum rain season, i.e. monsoon season when it also rains a lot. 100-200mm a day is fairly normal for May/June depending on when it starts. This is also why Computex can be very wet.

When I moved here, up to a third of all treated water leaked out on the way, due to old lead pipes which have mostly been replaced now in the greater Taipei area at least. Not sure about the rest of the island.

Then you have regular earthquakes that can quite easily cause leaks in the water supply.

Keep in mind that most of the dams were built in the 1950's and 1960's when the KMT invaded the island. As such, much of it is old, but the recent draught allowed the government to remove sediment and silt from the bottom of a lot of the catchment areas, as that had cause some additional problems, outside of reducing the actual volume of the catchment areas.

On top of all of this, you've had unscrupulous people dumping construction material into the water catchment areas, as it was an easy way of getting rid of it.

I live not too far from this (as the crow flies) and it's one of the most modern catchment areas that also produces electricity.

Feicui Dam - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Another issue in Taiwan is that the island has some of the cheapest water rates in the world, so people waste a lot of water. Many small mom and pop style restaurants hose down the sidewalk and maybe even restaurant daily, at it's a quick and easy way to clean. Many people believe dishwashers waste water here, so they've remained a luxury item that can easily cost US$1,000 or more for what is a base model in other countries. Many of the smaller restaurants so their washing up on the sidewalk with the water going down the storm drains, rather than down the proper drains. This leads to a lot of nasty, dirty waterways, especially in densely built up areas. There's a small creek across the road from Gigabyte's office that was meant to be used by farmers to water their fields, but it's now mainly a partially open gutter running through that area, as there are no farm land left.

Taiwan has a lot of things left to do to improve the overall situation, but the political will isn't there, as any party that increases the cost of water and electricity knows that they're most likely going to lose the next election.

Keep in mind that these are just observations from an outsider living on this island. The real situation could be a lot worse.

 

[Vayra86]

So what are they doing with all that tropical rain during the wet season, letting it flow away?
I've been there during a Typhoon, it dumped more rain in a few hours than some places see in 6 months.

That's exactly the problem. No system is built to pick up immense amounts of water all at the same time. When it is more gradual, it all works out fine.

Even here in the Netherlands, having our Delta works and everything, literally the ENTIRE country is built and adjusted to cater for fast drainage of water towards the sea. But with heavy rain, we'll still have rivers expanding so fast that the safe area between dykes and inhabited areas even gets flooded, The pressure becomes too high and the water just can't leave the land fast enough to prevent it from going through or over barriers.

Another problem is the soil; the more it is worked on, with heavy machinery etc, the more it solidifies and less capable it becomes of soaking up water like a sponge. The same things go obviously for all those concrete slabs we put down everywhere. Gardens that aren't gardens anymore but 'low maintenance' so you'll only find stones and tiles in it. Etc etc etc.

Climate change brings major challenges with water management. For example, draught. To combat draught, you want to hold water LONGER instead of draining it away faster. See how that does not mix with the above idea of not getting everything flooded? Yet, climate change creates more extremes - more dry periods alongside heavier rains. Good luck

Given some translation, here is some local source material

Overstromingen in de uiterwaarden | Mijn Gelderland

mijngelderland.nl

This is pretty close to where I live, in the river area between rivers Rijn and Waal. Flooding is a common occurrence in the way you see it on the picture. Systems are working for centuries now and water management is actively looking at new directions for it, as we also need to hold water more effectively versus draught.

 

[Wirko]

That's exactly the problem. No system is built to pick up immense amounts of water all at the same time. When it is more gradual, it all works out fine.

Even here in the Netherlands, having our Delta works and everything, literally the ENTIRE country is built and adjusted to cater for fast drainage of water towards the sea. But with heavy rain, we'll still have rivers expanding so fast that the safe area between dykes and inhabited areas even gets flooded, The pressure becomes too high and the water just can't leave the land fast enough to prevent it from going through or over barriers.

Another problem is the soil; the more it is worked on, with heavy machinery etc, the more it solidifies and less capable it becomes of soaking up water like a sponge. The same things go obviously for all those concrete slabs we put down everywhere. Gardens that aren't gardens anymore but 'low maintenance' so you'll only find stones and tiles in it. Etc etc etc.

Climate change brings major challenges with water management. For example, draught. To combat draught, you want to hold water LONGER instead of draining it away faster. See how that does not mix with the above idea of not getting everything flooded? Yet, climate change creates more extremes - more dry periods alongside heavier rains. Good luck

Given some translation, here is some local source material

Overstromingen in de uiterwaarden | Mijn Gelderland

mijngelderland.nl

This is pretty close to where I live, in the river area between rivers Rijn and Waal. Flooding is a common occurrence in the way you see it on the picture. Systems are working for centuries now and water management is actively looking at new directions for it, as we also need to hold water more effectively versus draught.

Can good fresh water water be pumped from deep wells? Is it too polluted? Too salty?

I see that ASML is located 19 meters above sea level and apparently far enough from big rivers. Guess they're safe.

 

[Vayra86]

Can good fresh water water be pumped from deep wells? Is it too polluted? Too salty?

I see that ASML is located 19 meters above sea level and apparently far enough from big rivers. Guess they're safe.

Ground water is being pumped up everywhere in this country, so much so (agriculture) that it made last draught period worse than it ever was. Basically we're taking more out than we're soaking back in over time.

We're also the country with the most intensive agricultural 'farming' methods in the world. We apparently get some of the highest returns per square acre. And this is the cost. Its just sucking everything dry. One of the ongoing discussions is how the output of agriculture amounts for about 50% of our pollution issue and how the major reduction can be made here without too much collateral damage. Go figure.

If you drive on the highway, whether you're going from east to west or north to south, the vast majority of your vistas will consist of flat grass. All agriculture. Literally every square centimeter is in use over here, and when its not, its getting replaced with something else, like solar farms and other senseless ways to waste precious space.

As for flooding, we do have the problem under control, its not going to be possible to get major or catastrophic events for anyone except some select smaller villages around rivers. But we control it so well, we're actually removing water 'too fast' in a general sense. And if you look at below map, consider that about 75% of the country's population, and major cities The Hague, Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Utrecht are all below sea level. The entire 'Randstad' is in dark blue and contains about 10 million people if I recall. This is too big to fail

For an impression here is a map of the country. Without Delta works, basically what's blue or light blue could be flooded any day of the week as it is respectively below sea level or next to rivers. You don't even need rain for it. Eindhoven, where ASML is situated is in a white area just southeast of the country below that light blue belt of rivers there.