VIS To Acquire GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ Fab 3E In Singapore

Hsin­chu, Tai­wan and San­ta Cla­ra, Calif. Jan. 31st, 2019 – Van­guard Inter­na­tio­nal Semi­con­duc­tor Cor­po­ra­ti­on (VIS) and GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF) today announ­ced that VIS will acqui­re GF’s Fab 3E in Tam­pi­nes, Sin­ga­po­re. The tran­sac­tion includes buil­dings, faci­li­ties, and equip­ment, as well as IP asso­cia­ted with GF’s MEMS busi­ness. GF will con­ti­nue to ope­ra­te the faci­li­ty through the end of 2019, pro­vi­ding a tran­si­ti­on peri­od to faci­li­ta­te tech­no­lo­gy trans­fers for VIS and exis­ting GF cus­to­mers. Fab 3E curr­ent­ly mana­ges a month­ly capa­ci­ty of appro­xi­m­ate­ly 35,000 8‑inch wafers. The tran­sac­tion amounts to $236 mil­li­on USD and the trans­fer of owner­ship is set to be com­ple­ted on Decem­ber 31st, 2019.

VIS and GF have alre­a­dy rea­ched con­sen­sus on the trans­fer of Fab 3E’s employees and cus­to­mers. Both com­pa­nies belie­ve that employees are the most important assets of a com­pa­ny, so their inte­rests should be put as the first prio­ri­ty during the transition–while ensu­ring no dis­rup­ti­on to cus­to­mers who­se pro­ducts are in pro­duc­tion at the fab. Under this pre­mi­se, VIS will extend employ­ment offers to all employees curr­ent­ly working at Fab 3E, as well as con­ti­nuous­ly pro­vi­de exis­ting cus­to­mers at Fab 3E with its foundry ser­vice, inclu­ding MEMS customers.

I app­re­cia­te the sup­port of GF’s board and manage­ment team for this tran­sac­tion, giving VIS an oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­ti­nue expan­ding its capa­ci­ty and rein­force momen­tum for future growth,” said Mr. Leuh Fang, Chair­man of VIS. “Sin­ce its foun­da­ti­on, VIS has alre­a­dy had three sepa­ra­te expe­ri­en­ces of suc­cessful­ly trans­forming a DRAM fab into a foundry fab. We belie­ve this tran­sac­tion is a win-win for both VIS and GF; and to VIS, it is also a decis­i­on that bene­fits all of our cus­to­mers, employees, and share­hol­ders. VIS will uphold its phi­lo­so­phy and prin­ci­ples to con­ti­nue satis­fy­ing cus­to­mers’ demands in capa­ci­ty and tech­no­lo­gy, sus­tai­ning pro­fi­ta­bi­li­ty and growth, and rewar­ding our shareholders.”

This tran­sac­tion is part of our stra­tegy to stream­li­ne our glo­bal manu­fac­tu­ring foot­print and increase our focus in Sin­ga­po­re on tech­no­lo­gies whe­re we have clear dif­fe­ren­tia­ti­on such as RF, embedded memo­ry and advan­ced ana­log fea­tures,” said GF CEO Tom Caul­field. “Con­so­li­da­ting our 200mm ope­ra­ti­ons in Sin­ga­po­re into one cam­pus will also help redu­ce our ope­ra­ting cos­ts by lever­aging the sca­le of our giga­fab faci­li­ty in Wood­lands. VIS is the right part­ner to levera­ge the Fab 3E asset going forward.”

VIS’s capa­ci­ty has been ful­ly uti­li­zed sin­ce 2018, and it is in the inte­rests of its cus­to­mers that VIS expands capa­ci­ty to meet gro­wing demands. The new fab is expec­ted to con­tri­bu­te more than 400,000 8‑inch wafers per year. This acqui­si­ti­on demons­tra­tes the deter­mi­na­ti­on and com­mit­ment of VIS to acce­le­ra­te capa­ci­ty expansion.

 

About VIS

Van­guard Inter­na­tio­nal Semi­con­duc­tor Cor­po­ra­ti­on (VIS) is a lea­ding spe­cial­ty IC foundry ser­vice pro­vi­der, foun­ded in Decem­ber 1994 in Hsin­chu Sci­ence Park, Tai­wan. VIS curr­ent­ly owns three 8‑inch fabs with capa­ci­ty of appro­xi­m­ate­ly 200,000 wafers per month. VIS offers a wide ran­ge of pro­cess tech­no­lo­gies, inclu­ding High Vol­ta­ge, Ultra High Vol­ta­ge, Bipo­lar CMOS DMOS (BCD), Dis­crete, SOI (Sili­con on Insu­la­tor), Logic, Mixed-Signal. For more infor­ma­ti­on, visit the company’s web­site: www.vis.com.tw

About GF

GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF) is a lea­ding full-ser­vice foundry deli­ve­ring tru­ly dif­fe­ren­tia­ted semi­con­duc­tor tech­no­lo­gies for a ran­ge of high-growth mar­kets. GF pro­vi­des a uni­que com­bi­na­ti­on of design, deve­lo­p­ment, and fabri­ca­ti­on ser­vices, with a ran­ge of inno­va­ti­ve IP and fea­ture-rich offe­rings inclu­ding Fin­FET, FDX™, RF and analog/mixed signal. With a manu­fac­tu­ring foot­print span­ning three con­ti­nents, GF has the fle­xi­bi­li­ty and agi­li­ty to meet the dyna­mic needs of cli­ents across the glo­be. GF is owned by Muba­d­a­la Invest­ment Com­pa­ny. For more infor­ma­ti­on, visit www.globalfoundries.com.