Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Intel to acquire Tower Semi, expanding its foundry footprint

Intel agreed to acquire Tower Semiconductor for $53 per share in cash, representing a total enterprise value of approximately $5.4 billion. 

Tower Semiconductor, which is based in Migdal Haemek, Israel, offers expertise is in specialty technologies, such as radio frequency (RF), power, silicon-germanium (SiGe) and industrial sensors, extensive IP and electronic design automation (EDA) partnerships, and an established foundry footprint. It operates seven manufacturing facilities: Fab 1 and Fab 2 (150mm and 200mm) in Israel, Fab 3 and Fab 9 (200mm) in Newport Beach, California and in San Antonio, Texas and three additional fabs (two 200mm and one 300mm) in Japan via a partnership with  Nuvoton Technology Corporation Japan. Tower is also sharing a 300mm manufacturing facility being established in Italy with ST Microelectronics. Altogher, Tower offers more than 2 million wafer starts per year of capacity. Tower also has a silicon photonics foundry.

“Tower’s specialty technology portfolio, geographic reach, deep customer relationships and services-first operations will help scale Intel’s foundry services and advance our goal of becoming a major provider of foundry capacity globally,” said Pat Gelsinger, Intel CEO. “This deal will enable Intel to offer a compelling breadth of leading-edge nodes and differentiated specialty technologies on mature nodes – unlocking new opportunities for existing and future customers in an era of unprecedented demand for semiconductors.”

https://www.intc.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1527/intel-to-acquire-tower-semiconductor-for-5-4-billion

Intel Foundry Services makes a splash: $1B fund, Arm & RISC-V support, Open Chiplet Platform 

by James E. CarrollThe newly established Intel Foundry Services (IFS) announced several initiatives to accelerate its entrance into the semiconductor fabrication market: a $1 billion investment fund, support for Arm and RISC-V in addition to x86, and pioneering work with chiplet architecture based on 3D packaging technology.The new $1 billion investment fund has three aims:Equity investments in disruptive startups.Strategic investments to accelerate...