# The European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ESMC) has broken ground on its €10bn chip fabrication plant in Dresden.
The plant will get €5bn in state aid from Germany and €3.5bn from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), ESMC’s majority shareholder.
European companies have a strong presence in the design of chips and the machines used to make them, but the sector remains dominated by east Asian countries.
The chips made in Dresden will be between 28 and 16 nanometres, and will be used in, for example, cars and household appliances. These are referred to in the industry as “legacy chips”, in contrast to the cutting edge, which is concerned with 7 nanometres or less.
The plant is expected to be completed in 2027. When it reaches full operational capacity in 2029, it will have a monthly production capacity of 40,000 300mm wafers.
Finally, we need to catch up in industrial output with the US and China.
Yes, finally, we are going to catch up!
Also, the machines needed for this factory come from Europe. The lenses in those machines from Dresden. OK, we are lagging in mass production of high end chips, but we are not that far behind. We have been lazy: “Oh, you guys can do it cheaper? Ok, we’ll stop producing and buy from you!” works for a short while. But for any key industry we need to retain some local capacity and local knowledge. Always have the option to ramp up local production.
honestly, we should bring as much production back to EU as possible.
and at the same time, make tighter defence agreements with SE Asian countries, that want to go with west instead of orks or the chinese and also redistribute some of the production that’s currently in china to these countries.
companies that move production to EU should get a boost from EU and companies that still want to “save” and outsource to china should be tariffed to hell. money is the only language they speak, so let’s level with them.
Since IMEC and ASML are both market leaders and from Europe this is great news
Funny how direct aids to companies were an EU taboo until Germany needed them. Now they get a a battery factory and a chip factory with tax payer money.
I am not against this at all, I find it good for the EU economy overall, but very hypocritical. Let’s hope we learn something from it and we don’t wait until Germany or France needs something to introduce much required changes to the EU functioning.
Finally! Doritos in Europe have always been far too expensive & you can’t get all the spicy varieties.
I can see TSMC perhaps not getting the chip output they’re hoping for from this plant…there’s Intel, Infineum, Bosch and (I think) global foundries with Fabs in the same area right? If so, how are they going to get the labour needed for full capacity manufacturing? The competition for workers is going to be insane (not a bad thing at all)!
I work in an area closely associated with the chip manufacturing industry and it’s a known problem that TSMC and Intel are suffering from this issue in Arizona at present. That and the fact TSMC expects quite a volume of work per employee!
That said, I’m clearly not privy to the information they have and I hope it does go as well as they’re planning for! Foundries are an area Europe really does lack behind in at the moment.
Is it a publically traded company? Can’t find a ticker for it, I’d like to invest 😳
“Catch up” by doing “legacy chips” in a decade old lithography? OK
If you thought North Stream was vulnerable, watch this..
This project can still go tits up.
The realm of semiconductor manufacturing is SO cutting edge, SO complex that it can afford no mistakes. Any mistake will cost you BILLIONS. I.e. every second that a door is open to the chip manufacturing line to the outside (so both doors in the airlock are open) costs you $40,000 just because of the dust particles coming in and destroying silicon-dies.
Naturally the construction of such a manufacturing plant also can not allow any mistakes, least of all political meddling. I.e. Biden tried to link the manufacturing plants built in the US to certain conditions like a quota for a diverse workforce (women and minorities) and it may have actually killed the project for good… because there simply aren’t enough viable workers with the required skills to properly man the factory while also keeping those conditions in mind. Turns out not a lot of women or minorities learn how to manufacture semiconductors.
Political meddling, no matter how good intended it may be, will harm such a project. Semiconductors are also such an important strategic good that any political ideology must be left outside within that industry. It has no place here. The only thing that matters is to churn out as many state of the art processors for as cheap as you can.
The project is only a done deal once the factory has been finished, processors are leaving the assembly line, and the factory turns a profit. Until then the project can self destruct at any moment.
That’s great news. Unfortunately, if you’re a high skilled but non-white person good luck dealing with the racist majority of Dresden. That city and Saxony people are a huge disadvantage for attracting worldwide talent
28 and 16 nanometres chips are quite outdated. These chips seem to me are for securing europe’s defense industry security.
That is a lot of money for old chips
Why dont we put these type of things in the poorer member countries?
16 comments
# The European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ESMC) has broken ground on its €10bn chip fabrication plant in Dresden.
The plant will get €5bn in state aid from Germany and €3.5bn from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), ESMC’s majority shareholder.
European companies have a strong presence in the design of chips and the machines used to make them, but the sector remains dominated by east Asian countries.
The chips made in Dresden will be between 28 and 16 nanometres, and will be used in, for example, cars and household appliances. These are referred to in the industry as “legacy chips”, in contrast to the cutting edge, which is concerned with 7 nanometres or less.
The plant is expected to be completed in 2027. When it reaches full operational capacity in 2029, it will have a monthly production capacity of 40,000 300mm wafers.
Finally, we need to catch up in industrial output with the US and China.
Yes, finally, we are going to catch up!
Also, the machines needed for this factory come from Europe. The lenses in those machines from Dresden. OK, we are lagging in mass production of high end chips, but we are not that far behind.
We have been lazy:
“Oh, you guys can do it cheaper? Ok, we’ll stop producing and buy from you!”
works for a short while. But for any key industry we need to retain some local capacity and local knowledge. Always have the option to ramp up local production.
honestly, we should bring as much production back to EU as possible.
and at the same time, make tighter defence agreements with SE Asian countries, that want to go with west instead of orks or the chinese and also redistribute some of the production that’s currently in china to these countries.
companies that move production to EU should get a boost from EU and companies that still want to “save” and outsource to china should be tariffed to hell. money is the only language they speak, so let’s level with them.
Since IMEC and ASML are both market leaders and from Europe this is great news
Funny how direct aids to companies were an EU taboo until Germany needed them. Now they get a a battery factory and a chip factory with tax payer money.
I am not against this at all, I find it good for the EU economy overall, but very hypocritical. Let’s hope we learn something from it and we don’t wait until Germany or France needs something to introduce much required changes to the EU functioning.
Finally! Doritos in Europe have always been far too expensive & you can’t get all the spicy varieties.
I can see TSMC perhaps not getting the chip output they’re hoping for from this plant…there’s Intel, Infineum, Bosch and (I think) global foundries with Fabs in the same area right? If so, how are they going to get the labour needed for full capacity manufacturing? The competition for workers is going to be insane (not a bad thing at all)!
I work in an area closely associated with the chip manufacturing industry and it’s a known problem that TSMC and Intel are suffering from this issue in Arizona at present. That and the fact TSMC expects quite a volume of work per employee!
That said, I’m clearly not privy to the information they have and I hope it does go as well as they’re planning for! Foundries are an area Europe really does lack behind in at the moment.
Is it a publically traded company? Can’t find a ticker for it, I’d like to invest 😳
“Catch up” by doing “legacy chips” in a decade old lithography? OK
If you thought North Stream was vulnerable, watch this..
This project can still go tits up.
The realm of semiconductor manufacturing is SO cutting edge, SO complex that it can afford no mistakes. Any mistake will cost you BILLIONS. I.e. every second that a door is open to the chip manufacturing line to the outside (so both doors in the airlock are open) costs you $40,000 just because of the dust particles coming in and destroying silicon-dies.
Naturally the construction of such a manufacturing plant also can not allow any mistakes, least of all political meddling. I.e. Biden tried to link the manufacturing plants built in the US to certain conditions like a quota for a diverse workforce (women and minorities) and it may have actually killed the project for good… because there simply aren’t enough viable workers with the required skills to properly man the factory while also keeping those conditions in mind. Turns out not a lot of women or minorities learn how to manufacture semiconductors.
Political meddling, no matter how good intended it may be, will harm such a project. Semiconductors are also such an important strategic good that any political ideology must be left outside within that industry. It has no place here. The only thing that matters is to churn out as many state of the art processors for as cheap as you can.
The project is only a done deal once the factory has been finished, processors are leaving the assembly line, and the factory turns a profit. Until then the project can self destruct at any moment.
That’s great news. Unfortunately, if you’re a high skilled but non-white person good luck dealing with the racist majority of Dresden. That city and Saxony people are a huge disadvantage for attracting worldwide talent
28 and 16 nanometres chips are quite outdated. These chips seem to me are for securing europe’s defense industry security.
That is a lot of money for old chips
Why dont we put these type of things in the poorer member countries?