Photo: Xinhua
Source: 21tech
Author: Ni Yuqing
Editor: Zhang Weixian
Intel is sparing no effort to strengthen chip manufacturing and expand the foundry business.
On February 15, Intel officially announced that it will acquire Tower Semiconductor, a wafer foundry company, for a total enterprise value of about $5.4 billion for $53 per share. Tower Semiconductor, the world's ninth-largest foundry, focuses on analog chip production and currently has a market capitalization of $3.594 billion, with Intel premiuming more than 50% of its revenue. As of press time, the tower semiconductor surged 40.93% to $46.74.
Intel said the acquisition advances Intel's IDM 2.0 strategy, further expanding Intel's manufacturing capacity, global footprint and technology portfolio. An important part of Intel's IDM 2.0 strategy is Intel's determination to enter the field of foundry services. To this end, in March 2021, Intel formed a new independent business unit, Intel Foundry Services Division (IFS).
Acquiring a well-established chipmaker is certainly an efficient way to rapidly expand production capacity. Last year, there were also rumors that Intel wanted to buy wafer foundry GlobalFoundries for $30 billion, but the rumors did not come true, and GF eventually carried out an IPO. Today, Intel has bought another foundry, Tower Semiconductor.
According to the official website of Gaota Semiconductor, in 1993, after the acquisition of the 150mm wafer manufacturing plant of the Israeli company National Semiconductor, Gaota Semiconductor was officially established, and then listed in 1994.
In 2001, the 200mm fab Fab2 was completed; in 2008, Tower Semiconductor acquired Jazz Semiconductor's 200mm factory (Fab 3) to become TowerJazz; in 2014, TowerJazz established a joint venture with panasonic Group to increase production capacity in Japan; in 2016, TowerJazz acquired Maxim Integrated has an 8-inch wafer fabrication facility in the United States; in 2020, TowerJazz officially launched a new brand and changed its name to Tower Semiconductor.
It is reported that Gaota Semiconductor has expertise in radio frequency (RF), power supply, silicon germanium (SiGe), industrial sensors and other professional technologies, serving the mobile, automotive and power supply markets, and operating foundry business across regions. With facilities throughout the United States and Asia, it serves fabless companies and IDM companies, and provides more than 2 million wafer starts per year.
Regarding the integration of the two teams, Intel said that Intel's Foundry Services Division and Tower Semiconductor will operate independently until the transaction is completed. After the transaction closes, Intel will make the two organizations a fully integrated foundry business. At the same time, the transaction is expected to close within about 12 months, subject to certain regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.
In addition to acquisitions, Intel itself is also building fabs, including a $20 billion new plant investment plan in Arizona and a $3.5 billion new advanced packaging investment plan in New Mexico.
In 2022, Intel is more aggressive, and on January 21, Intel announced a new fab investment plan that will build a new chip production base in Ohio, USA, with an initial investment of more than $20 billion, plans to build 2 new cutting-edge chip factories, which will be Intel's first new production base in 40 years and is expected to start production in 2025, which will house 8 chip manufacturing plants.
As chip shortages and capacity shortages continue, wafer foundries have embarked on aggressive expansion plans, and with the increase in policies and laws of various countries, companies will receive more incentives. Recently, the European Commission passed the European Chip Act, and the US Competition Act of 2022 passed by the United States includes the Chip Act, both of which have spent tens of billions of dollars to increase the semiconductor industry chain. With financial support, Intel and other giants are fiercely advancing, whether it is semiconductor companies or countries around the world, they all want to seize the next commanding heights, and chip manufacturing is a necessary link.
TrendForce Jibang Consulting said that while there is a chip shortage in the global electronic product supply chain, the price increase effects derived from the shortage of wafer foundry capacity have pushed up the output value of the top ten wafer foundry industries in 2020 and 2021 for two consecutive years, exceeding the annual growth rate of more than 20%, breaking through the 100 billion US dollar mark. Looking forward to 2022, driven by the price increase led by TSMC, it is expected that the wafer foundry output value will reach 117.69 billion US dollars, an annual increase of 13.3%.
As Intel joins the foundry battlefield, how will the landscape change? According to the global wafer generation industry revenue ranking released by Jibang Consulting in the third quarter of 2021, TSMC ranked first with a market share of 53.1%, Samsung ranked second with 17.1%, and Gaota Semiconductor ranked ninth with a share of 1.4%, and the third quarter performed better than originally expected, with revenue of $390 million, a quarterly increase of 6.9%, mainly benefiting from the stable contribution of rf-SOI, industrial Sensors and power management ICs.
After the acquisition is completed, Intel will first enter the top ten of wafer foundry, and with the landing of new factories in the next few years, the competition with TSMC, Samsung and other leading companies will be more direct and fierce.
Editor: Lu Taoran