Paul van Gerven
14 June 2022

Globalfoundries and STMicroelectronics are exploring the possibility of jointly building a fab in France, anonymous sources told Bloomberg. The chip factory would most likely focus on FD-SOI chips, since the two recently teamed up to move this technology to lower nodes. Both companies refused to comment on the report specifically.

CEA Leti cleanroom
Credit: Andréa Aubert/CEA

Last February, the European Union launched the European Chips Act, greenlighting substantial national subsidies for first-of-a-kind chip manufacturing initiatives in Europe. Intel will be the first beneficiary of this scheme, receiving 6.8 billion euros from the German state to build a CMOS fab complex in Magdeburg. Since Globalfoundries and ST focus on FD-SOI, they should be eligible for state aid as well.