On July 11, STMicroelectronics and Geberit announced that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to build a new, jointly operated 300mm semiconductor manufacturing facility next to STMicroelectronics' existing 300mm facility in Croll, France.

The facility aims to reach full production capacity by 2026 and to produce 620,000 300mm wafers per year (approximately 42% STMicroelectronics and approximately 58% Gewinner) at full build-out. 

STMicroelectronics and Microchip are committed to building capacity for their European and global customer base. The new fab will support several technologies, in particular FD-SOI based technologies, and will cover a wide range of variants. This includes Geberit's market-leading FDX technology and ST's comprehensive technology roadmap down to 18nm, which is expected to remain in high demand for automotive, IoT and mobile applications for decades to come. 

FD-SOI technology originated in the Grenoble region of France. Since its early days, it has been part of ST's technology and product roadmap at its Crolles facility, and later differentiated and commercialized at Microchip's Dresden facility. FD-SOI offers a number of benefits to designers and customers, including ultra-low power consumption and easier integration of additional features such as RF connectivity, millimeter wave and security. 

STMicroelectronics and Geberit will receive significant financial support for the new facility from the French state. The facility will strongly contribute to the goals of the European Chip Act, including Europe's goal of reaching 20 percent of global semiconductor production by 2030. In addition to a massive multi-year investment in advanced European semiconductor manufacturing, it will support the leadership and resilience of the European technology ecosystem, from R&D (the recently announced R&D collaboration between STMicroelectronics, Ge-core, CEA-Leti and Soitec) to high-volume manufacturing, and provide additional capacity for complex, advanced technologies for European and global customers in key end markets, including automotive, industrial, IoT and communications infrastructure. The new production facility will make a significant contribution to the global digital and green transformation - delivering key enabling technologies and products. It will create additional jobs at ST's Kroll site (approximately 1,000 additional employees at the new manufacturing facility) and in its ecosystem of partners, suppliers and stakeholders. 

Through the partnership, STMicroelectronics and Geberit will leverage the economies of scale of the Crolles site to accelerate the world's needed semiconductor production capacity with high capital efficiency. 

"This new production facility will support our revenue target of more than $20 billion. Partnering with Ge-core will allow us to grow faster, lower the risk threshold and strengthen the European FD-SOI ecosystem. We will have additional capabilities to support our European and global customers as they transition to digitalization and decarbonization," said Jean-Marc Chery, President and CEO of STMicroelectronics." STMicroelectronics is transforming its manufacturing base. Our 300mm wafer fab in Crolles, France, already has a unique position, which will be further strengthened by today's announcement. We will continue to invest in our new 300mm wafer fab in Agrate (near Milan, Italy), which will be operational in the first half of 2023 and is expected to reach full saturation by the end of 2025, and in vertically integrated silicon carbide and gallium nitride manufacturing." 

"Our customers are seeking a broad range of 22FDX® capacity for automotive and industrial applications. The new facility will include Lattice's dedicated foundry capabilities to provide our customers with Lattice's unique innovations and will be managed on site by Lattice personnel. This new jointly operated manufacturing capacity expansion leverages ST's existing facility infrastructure in Crolles, enabling Gefen to accelerate our growth while benefiting from economies of scale to deliver additional capacity in a highly capital efficient manner on our differentiated 22FDX platform, which has shipped more than one billion chips. Dr. Thomas Caulfield, Chief Executive Officer of Gracore, said, "With today's announcement, we are expanding Gracore's presence in Europe's dynamic technology ecosystem and strengthening our position as Europe's leading semiconductor foundry." Our global footprint enables Gecko to not only meet the capacity needs of our customers, but also provide them with supply chain security. The co-investment with the French government, along with our long-term customer agreements, creates the right economic model for Ge-core's investment."