Intel is about to get its hands on Tower Semiconductor. The Israeli company is in the same segment as GlobalFoundries, a much larger US manufacturer that caught Intel’s eye last summer.
Faced with a shortage of semiconductors that drags on, Intel is stepping up investments to acquire additional production capacity. In this perspective, the American founder is about to get his hands on the Israeli company Tower Semiconductor, which specializes in the manufacture of chips under contract, according to a source familiar with the matter quoted by the wall street journal. The amount of the operation could be around 6 billion dollars, almost double the current valuation of Tower Semiconductor on the stock market (3.6 billion dollars). The takeover could be formalized this week, according to the American daily.
Born almost three decades ago, the Israeli company manufactures electronic chips used in the automotive, medical and aerospace industries. In this context, Tower Semiconductor operates factories in Israel, the United States and Japan to make them available to companies that do not have their own production units.
The Israeli company is in the same segment as GlobalFoundries, a much larger US manufacturer that caught Intel’s eye last summer. But the latter finally preferred to keep his independence to go public, where he now weighs nearly 30 billion dollars. Intel has therefore finally set its sights on Tower Semiconductor.
Towards a gigantic production complex in the United States
This imminent takeover is part of the war effort deployed by the American giant to return to center stage in the global semiconductor industry. In this sense, the Santa Clara firm wants to build a gigantic microchip production site in Ohio, in the United States. A disproportionate project, which could one day house the largest processor manufacturing complex in the world, bringing together eight factories. To complete this project, Intel plans to spread 100 billion dollars of investment over at least ten years.
Pat Gelsinger, the boss of Intel, also indicated that his group could invest 80 billion euros in Europe over the next decade, in order to boost its production capacity of semiconductors against TSMC and Samsung, the two other industry giants. The American firm would have set its sights on Germany and the city of Dresden for its “megafab”, its new large production site in Europe, while Italy seems well on its way to hosting an assembly site.