Germany Readies €2 Billion in New Semiconductor Subsidy Package

[Nomad76]

Germany is set to invest €2 billion in the semiconductor industry after recent setbacks, according to TrendForce via Liberty Times citing Bloomberg. The German government's new funding is in response to the chip sector's problems, including Intel's delay of the Magdeburg factory and global disruptions in the semiconductor supply chain. The investment will support 10 to 15 projects from wafer production to microchip assembly to strengthen Germany's and Europe's microelectronics ecosystem. This is in line with the European Chips Act which aims to increase the EU's global production capacity to 20% by 2030.

Intel's €30 billion Magdeburg factory delay and other cancelled chip projects from Wolfspeed and ZF Friedrichshafen AG have created uncertainty in the German market. The Ministry of Economic Affairs is now calling for new applications for funding, with up to €3 billion available. The timing of the semiconductor investment follows the global supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic and the increasing geopolitical tensions between the US, China and Taiwan. Germany is following a broader trend of governments investing in local semiconductor production to increase technological independence and economic resilience. The funding is subject to budget reallocation with the new government after February 2025 elections. In the first round of subsidies from the European Chips Act, Germany allocated resources to two key initiatives: Intel's investment and a collaborative project between Infineon and TSMC in Dresden.



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[bonehead123]

Well, hopefully it won't take 3-4 years to dispense the funds, unlike the bureaucratic red tape-infested, conglomerated clusterf*ck that we call a gov't here in the good ole US of A

Perhaps the new administration will speed things up a bit, as they've been hyping up the efficiency-improvement thing a lot lately.....

 

[Vayra86]

Well, hopefully it won't take 3-4 years to dispense the funds, unlike the bureaucratic red tape-infested, conglomerated clusterf*ck that we call a gov't here in the good ole US of A

Perhaps the new administration will speed things up a bit, as they've been hyping up the efficiency-improvement thing a lot lately.....

Well Scholz out of the way is certainly going to speed SOMETHING up, my god the man is an indecisive fool if I've ever seen one. Afraid, too, or 'risk averse' in a more political context. This is the type of leader who caves to finally make the right decision when the game has already been played and all chess pieces are back in the box again, and then wonders why it didn't work for him after all. Its horrible; with allies like that, its painful to have enemies at all.

 

[dont whant to set it"']

Good luck to them and their green hat they be wearing, shade-giga-subsidy planet raping tool.

 

[Nhonho]

Germany is set to invest €2 billion in the semiconductor industry after recent setbacks

Germany is only 4 years late (5 years late 1 month from now).

Intel's €30 billion Magdeburg factory delay

What sane CEO is going to hire Intel to manufacture its chips? What sane CEO is going to show Intel, which is the direct competitor of almost all other companies that sell chips, the design of its chips, its industrial secrets well in advance?

Seriously, the German government didn't think of this and allocated a huge amount of money for Intel to build a chip factory for other companies in Germany?

The German government must allocate this huge amount of money mainly to other companies, such as GlobalFoundries, Samsung and TSMC, to build factories with cutting-edge technology on German soil.

ALL the factories needed to manufacture chips, from the sand to the final chip ready to be purchased by domestic users and OEMs, must be built on US and German soil.

 

[KLMR]

Can anyone clarify please. Afaik in US and most english-speaking countries:
1 billion is 10+9 --> 1.000.000.000 = 1 Giga$
(1 trillion is 10+12 --> 1.000.000.000.000) = 1 Tera$

For most European countries:
1 billion is 10+12 --> 1.000.000.000.000 = 1 Tera€
(1 trillion is 10+18 -->1.000.000.000.000.000.000) = 1 Exa€

This difference, 1000 times, is substantial

For 2billion$ you can't build a top notch fab. New fabs costs around 10 times more:

2.000.000.000 $ planned investment on a fab.
20.000.000.000 $ aprox. cost of a fab.

(ref., there are plenty even here in TPU, for.example: https://www.construction-physics.com/p/how-to-build-a-20-billion-semiconductor)
But its not only the construction costs, but the personnel to test it and run it and all surrounding industry (logistics, food, etc.).

For 2billion€ you can build around 100 fabs or 50 fabs and their related infrastructures (its around the GDP of Spain).
That would probably transform Germany in the new semiconductor meca in 10 years if it wasn't because THERE IS NOONE IN EUROPE CAPABLE TO RUN THOSE FABS, neither now or in 10 years.

 

[Wirko]

Can anyone clarify please. Afaik in US and most english-speaking countries:
1 billion is 10+9 --> 1.000.000.000 = 1 Giga$
(1 trillion is 10+12 --> 1.000.000.000.000) = 1 Tera$

For most European countries:
1 billion is 10+12 --> 1.000.000.000.000 = 1 Tera€
(1 trillion is 10+18 -->1.000.000.000.000.000.000) = 1 Exa€

That doesn't depend on the country. As long as we communicate in English, we follow the conventions that eccentric Brits came up with. Billion = giga, and thousands separator is a comma. We're discussing chips here, so a billion euros is probably 1,073,741,824 €. But that doesn't matter because big investments always go over budget, so a billion euros is, like, 2,000,000,000 €.

 

[Nhonho]

I don't understand why chip factories don't use 450 mm wafers yet. With 450 mm wafers, they could produce more chips while paying the same wages to factory workers (which are already quite high wages) and even saving some energy and time in manufacturing, which would make the unit cost of each chip lower.

Since new chip factories are going to be built from scratch in the US and Germany, why not build them adapted for 450 mm wafers from the beginning?

In short, with 450 mm wafers, fabs would produce more chips while keeping many of their manufacturing costs the same and other costs would increase only slightly, and thus the cost of producing each chip would be lower.

If 1 chip factory adopts 450 mm wafers, all the others will do the same to have lower manufacturing costs as well.

 

[Wirko]

I don't understand why chip factories don't use 450 mm wafers yet. With 450 mm wafers, they could produce more chips while paying the same wages to factory workers (which are already quite high wages) and even saving some energy and time in manufacturing, which would make the unit cost of each chip lower.

Since new chip factories are going to be built from scratch in the US and Germany, why not build them adapted for 450 mm wafers from the beginning?

In short, with 450 mm wafers, fabs would produce more chips while keeping many of their manufacturing costs the same and other costs would increase only slightly, and thus the cost of producing each chip would be lower.

If 1 chip factory adopts 450 mm wafers, all the others will do the same to have lower manufacturing costs as well.

Answer #1: too much hassle with multiple standards already, who needs more of them?

TSMC operates four 12-inch wafer GIGAFAB® fabs, four 8-inch wafer fabs, and one 6-inch wafer fab – all in Taiwan – as well as one 12-inch wafer fab at a wholly owned subsidiary, TSMC Nanjing Company Limited, and two 8-inch wafer fabs at wholly owned subsidiaries, TSMC Washington in the United States, and TSMC China Company Limited. - source

IF TSMC can't put an end to 200 mm and 150 mm chip manufacturing, who can?

Answer #2: economics doesn't work in favour of that. There are many, many different tools that process wafers in a fab in some way, from lithoghraphy to transport and storage. I have no idea how many. A hundred different tools? Every one of them would have to be redesigned. It might be quite trivial for some of them but someone still has to do it, and then keep maintaining the 300 mm model too. The entire industry would have to stand behind this transition - and it wouldn't really be a transition because 300 mm fabs would keep working and would need servicing and technology updates too, for the longest time. All in all, it looks like many billions spent for some long-term gain. If they spend them to make those fancy ASML chip printers 2% faster, the gain will be immediate.

Answer #3: we're a cartel. Who wants lower unit costs? The customers do, not us. Each of us knows well enough what the other ones are buying because we all buy those fancy ovens from Tokyo Electron, for example. And we know Tokyo Electron won't silently develop a bigger fancy oven just for one of us, to the surprise of others. So we're all safe.

 

[Readlight]

Another megaproject, inflation incoming.

 

[kondamin]

I don't understand why chip factories don't use 450 mm wafers yet. With 450 mm wafers, they could produce more chips while paying the same wages to factory workers (which are already quite high wages) and even saving some energy and time in manufacturing, which would make the unit cost of each chip lower.

Since new chip factories are going to be built from scratch in the US and Germany, why not build them adapted for 450 mm wafers from the beginning?

In short, with 450 mm wafers, fabs would produce more chips while keeping many of their manufacturing costs the same and other costs would increase only slightly, and thus the cost of producing each chip would be lower.

If 1 chip factory adopts 450 mm wafers, all the others will do the same to have lower manufacturing costs as well.

Financial crisis happened and tsmc didn’t want to, that’s why we are still stuck at 300mm

also as I understood it euv and beyond doesn’t like big wafers

 

[Nhonho]

also as I understood it euv and beyond doesn’t like big wafers

Why? What is the difference between shining a laser on a 200, 300 and 450 mm wafer?

 

[sepheronx]

they already tried this with Intel and it fell through and now they are begging for someone else to open up a fabrication plant in their deindustrializing country (Volkswagen already left or at least closed down one of the largest oldest plants).

Keep throwing money, someone will eventually take it, fail and then throw even more!

 

[kondamin]

Why? What is the difference between shining a laser on a 200, 300 and 450 mm wafer?

The projector needs bigger lenses for higher resolution work, which requires bigger masks which require even bigger lenses.

the machines would quickly cost tens of billions in stead of hundreds of millions

 

[Chomiq]

Whatever you do Germany, don't give that money to Intel.