American IC manufacturers have 56% of their wafer capacity installed at fabs located in other regions of the world, according to the new Global Wafer Capacity 2023 report from Knometa Research. As of year-end 2022, American companies have installed capacity of 4.6 million 200mm-equivalent wafers per month, with 2.0 million in domestic fabs and 2.6 million in fabs at foreign sites.
Of the major IC producing countries and regions (Americas, China, Europe, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan), the Americas region is unique in that foreign capacity exceeds that of domestic capacity.
The biggest volumes of offshore capacity for American companies are in Singapore (22% share of total), Taiwan (12%), Japan (10%), Germany (4%), Ireland (3%), and Israel (2%).
- Singapore: Micron Technology - 4 fabs, GlobalFoundries - 4 fabs
- Taiwan: Micron Technology - 4 fabs, Diodes - 1 fab
- Japan: Micron Technology - 4 fabs, TI - 2 fabs, Onsemi - 1 fab
- Germany: GlobalFoundries - 2 fabs, TI - 1 fab
- Ireland: Intel - 1 fab, Analog Devices - 1 fab
- Israel: Intel - 2 fabs
With its many large fabs in Singapore, Taiwan, and Japan, Micron owns by far the most offshore capacity, accounting for 65% of the 2.6 million wafers in monthly capacity. GlobalFoundries is next with a 14% share followed by Intel with 9% and Texas Instruments with 5%.
In the past couple years, American companies have announced several major fab construction projects in the U.S. Some of these came about as a result of the CHIPS Act passed by the U.S. government in July 2022 to boost American semiconductor research, development, and manufacturing.
American-owned fabs under construction in the U.S. and scheduled to open during 2024-2025 include:
- Intel - Fabs 52 and 62 in Chandler, Arizona
- Texas Instruments - Fabs SM1 and SM2 in Sherman, Texas
- Intel - Fab 27 in New Albany, Ohio
- Micron - Fab in Boise, Idaho
Micron will also build a large fab site in Clay, New York, but this project is part of the company's long-term capacity expansion plans and construction will not begin until 2024 at the earliest. In January 2023, Analog Devices announced plans to double the capacity of its fab in Beaverton, Oregon.
While the share of domestic IC wafer capacity will increase some in the next several years with the opening of these large new fabs in the U.S., American companies are building or have plans to build additional fabs at overseas sites as well. Moreover, Intel's pending acquisition of Tower Semiconductor, with its fabs in Israel and Japan (as well as the U.S.), will shift the balance in the direction of more foreign capacity. Had Tower been part of Intel at the end of 2022 with the headquarters of the combined operations being in the U.S., the foreign share of American-owned capacity would be one percentage point higher at 57%.
About Global Wafer Capacity 2023
Global Wafer Capacity provides a detailed examination of existing fab capacity along with a five-year forecast to 2027. The report has been published on an annual basis since 2007, initially by IC Insights. In December 2021, IC Insights transferred business associated with Global Wafer Capacity to co-founder Trevor Yancey. Mr. Yancey became an independent contractor in 2014 but continued as the principal analyst and project manager for Global Wafer Capacity. Published in January 2023, Global Wafer Capacity 2023 is sold by Mr. Yancey’s company Knometa Research. For more information, visit https://knometa.com/gwc.
About Knometa Research
Knometa Research is a semiconductor technology and market analysis firm led by former IC Insights executive, Trevor Yancey. Mr. Yancey co-founded IC Insights in 1997 with Bill McClean and Brian Matas. In 2014, Mr. Yancey established Knometa Research to serve as an independent contractor for TechSearch International and for IC Insights until that business closed in December 2022. For more information, visit https://knometa.com.