The Taiwanese chip company TSMC wants to build a new semiconductor factory in Dresden. The company’s board of directors spoke out in favor of the location on Tuesday, as announced at a press conference.
The Taiwanese want to primarily produce chips for the automotive industry in Dresden, where they have already acquired the relevant property. TSMC, one of the world’s leading chip contract manufacturers, will operate the plant in a joint venture with partners Bosch, Infineon and NXP. TSMC will hold 70 percent of the planned joint venture. Bosch, Infineon and NXP will each hold ten percent.
The four companies want to invest more than ten billion euros. The federal government supports the factory construction with an estimated five billion euros, like that Handelsblatt first reported. However, the EU Commission still has to approve these subsidies.
TSMC’s plans were already known at the beginning of May. Now the rumors are confirmed. The joint venture, called ESMC, will provide jobs for around 2,000 people. According to the group, construction of the factory should start in the second half of 2024 and production should start at the end of 2027.
Over the past 30 years, Dresden has developed into a focal point of the global chip industry. Every third semiconductor that is produced in the EU now comes from the metropolitan area of the Saxon capital. The Munich high-tech group Infineon also wants to invest five billion euros on the Elbe by 2026.
New semiconductor factories in the European Union are generally being promoted with high subsidies in order to double the European share of global chip production to 20 percent. This is intended to reduce dependence on the USA and, above all, on Asia. Just a few weeks ago, the federal government promised the US chipmaker Intel subsidies totaling 9.9 billion euros for a new plant in Magdeburg. In Ensdorf, Saarland, too, a new factory is to be built on the site of a disused coal-fired power plant, in which silicon carbide semiconductors will be manufactured. The US company Wolfspeed wants 2.5 billion euros for this standard and expects that about 25 percent of it will be taken over by the state.
The background to the high level of state aid is concern about a possible escalation in East Asia if China tries to use force to incorporate Taiwan, which is viewed as a renegade province. This should also have a massive impact on trade routes. Most of the chips needed in all high-tech products are currently produced in Taiwan, Japan, China and South Korea.