To meet future demand for semiconductors amid a severe chip shortage for 2020-2022, all major chip makers have announced plans to build new fabs and also disclosed estimated costs. Supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic and an inflationary spiral triggered by Russia’s ensuing war on Ukraine have increased the costs of Intel and Samsung’s fabs by billions of dollars, according to Reuters.
When Intel last year announced plans to open a new manufacturing site near Magdeburg, Germany, the first production fab and support facility required a $18.7 billion (€17 billion) investment, with a $7.2 billion He said he needed state aid. However, due to high inflation, rising material costs and high energy prices, the company now believes the initial investment will be around $31.675 billion (€30 billion). According to a Bloomberg report last week, from $4.223 billion he will need more state aid of $5.279 billion (€4 to €5 billion).
Intel has confirmed that it is renegotiating its support package with German authorities, citing rising manufacturing costs, but has not confirmed the exact amount requested.
“The global economic turmoil has increased costs from construction materials to energy,” Intel said in a statement. “We appreciate the constructive dialogue with the federal government to address the cost gap with building elsewhere and make this project globally competitive.”
Intel’s German fab will be one of the world’s most advanced semiconductor fabs when completed in late 2010. Given the timeframe for the start of production, it’s likely that the sub-1.8nm (Intel 18A and later) manufacturing process will be used to produce chips for customers of Intel and its Intel Foundry Service division.
Intel isn’t the only company whose manufacturing costs are higher than expected. Samsung estimates that initial investment in the fab, which it plans to build near Taylor, Texas, will total more than $25 billion, up by more than $8 billion from his initial projections. Reuters A report citing three people who know about the issue.
Wafer fab equipment makes up a large part of manufacturing costs, and these tools are getting more and more expensive, but construction costs were a major reason for the high manufacturing costs in Taylor, Texas. Samsung, on the other hand, wants to build a fab sooner or later, as costs are expected to rise further.
A Reuters source was quoted as saying, “Rising construction costs account for about 80% of the cost increase.” “Materials have become more expensive,” the source added.
Samsung looks forward to completing construction of its fab in Taylor, Texas in late 2023 or early 2024. After transitioning to production tools, we plan to start manufacturing chips at our production facility in 2024-2025. 4nm class process technology.
