The ST-Globalfoundries plan to build a joint FD-SOI 12 inch fab at Crolles is, reportedly, on hold.

The €7.5 billion project was awarded €2.9 billion of EU subsidies in May 2023.

No reason has been given for pausing the plan, butstmicro-150x150.jpg speculation points to four issues:

After 18 months, there has been no substantial advance in the project, raising concerns about its feasibility .

There is underutilised production capacity in Europe and worsening market conditions in the world semiconductor market.

Although EU funding was approved 18 months ago, the rollout of funds has, allegedly, been slow.

Both ST and GloFo are increasingly focusing on opportunities in the Chinese market, diverting attention from the Crolles project

ST has been acquiring chip manufacturing capacity in China to maintain its presence in the China market in the face of increasing competition from local China chip firms which are quickly improving their technical capabilities. ST has done deals with Sanan Opto for SiC capacity and the China foundry Hua Hong for 40nm MCUs.

By: DocMemory
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