Silicon Box chooses Novara for its chip factory

The semiconductor company Silicon Box,with headquarters in Singapore,chose the city of Novara,in Piedmont, for the 3.2 billion euro investment with which it will set up its new chip factory. The Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy announced this Adolfo Urso,who officially announced at Mimit the site identified by Silicon Box, together with the top management of the Singapore company. “I believe that Italy – declared Urso – can become one of the fundamental production hubs of microelectronics in Europe and on the international scene. The data of these months comfort us: since the beginning of the year, if we add the investments of Silicon Box, with the 5 billion of St in Catania, to the more modest ones of other foreign companies in Italy, we reach the amount of over 9 billion of investments in microelectronics in this country”. Mimit explains in a note that the investment in Novara announced in March, will be able to “create 1600 qualified jobs” and that, as underlined by Urso, “the investment carried out by Silicon Box represents a model case, an international unicum, the first chiplet production plant in Europe”. Furthermore, the note continues, the approval of the state financing of a part of the investment, by the European Union, “is still in progress”.

The Italian government’s action is part of a strategy that, Mimit points out, “encourages the establishment of large production investments in Italy to strengthen the competitive advantage where it exists (such as in power electronics) or acquire one where reasonable (such as in advanced backend)”. Mimit also underlines that further objectives of the government consist in “strengthening advanced industrial research to remain at the forefront in key sectors or extend it to other promising sectors and building relationships with like-minded countries aimed at forming alliances and starting joint projects”. The result of the line taken by the Ministry of Enterprise is represented, among others, by the investment of 5 billion euros in Catania by StMicoeletronics. Announced last May, the St investment is “the second largest project ever approved by the European Commission within the regulatory package on the sector” and, according to Mimit, “created 2 thousand skilled jobswith financial support of around 2 billion euros from the Italian State under the European Chips Act, making it the second largest project ever approved by the European Commission within the regulatory package on the sector that aims to double the EU’s global market share in the semiconductor sector by 2030, from 10 to at least 20%”.

They contribute, the note continues, to making Italy “one of the leading European microchip manufacturers“, even minor foreign investments, such as the one carried out by the German Aixtron, which has invested up to 50 million euros in Turin for the production of machinery and power chips, and by the French SiPearl, with the opening of a design center in Bologna for high-performance and low-power chips for HPC and artificial intelligence”. Added to these is the assignment of the pilot line on high-resistance materials, which the European Commission wanted to build in the Etna Valley in Sicily with 360 million, indicates the Ministry of Enterprise. In addition to this, finally reports the Mimit, “even within the G7 presidency, Italy has promoted a Contact Group on chips, to collaborate as a 7-person group on coordination in the event of a crisis, pre-competitive research and sustainable manufacturing”. “We have just established the foundation for chips in the city of Pavia and the foundation for Artificial Intelligence in the city of Turin, so that in the same territory there will be particular attention to research, innovation and technology transfer to our companies”.