Infineon will officially open its new 300mm chip production fab in Villach, Austria, on Friday. Production there has to be largely automated, which means that the number of new jobs is relatively small.
Construction of Infineon’s Austrian chip factory was completed in August and not only will the opening take place this week, but the first wafers will also leave the production lines. This concerns 300mm wafers for the production of chips for cars, data centers and sustainability applications such as solar panels and windmills, according to Infineon.
The chip factory in Villach covers an area of approximately 60,000 square meters and provides work for 400 people. That is relatively little because Infineon makes production as automated as possible. Construction started in early 2019 and Infineon has invested 1.6 billion euros in the fab. In 2020, Infineon already opened a renovated research center at the location. This involved an investment of 50 million euros and this expansion created 350 additional jobs.
Top people from Infineon and Austrian politicians are present at the opening of the chip factory in Villach, as well as European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton. He has been committed to stimulating chip production in Europe for some time. For example, last week it was announced that the European Commission is proposing a Chip Act to boost chip production on European territory and to become less dependent on the US and Asia.