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Bonn/Dresden. The German Federal Cartel Office has announced the planned participation of the automotive supplier Bosch and the chip manufacturer Infineon and NXP The construction of a new billion-euro semiconductor factory in Dresden has been approved.
The three companies may each acquire 10 percent of the shares in the company founded by the Taiwanese chip group TSMC European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ESMC), as the federal authority announced in Bonn on Tuesday. TSMC will hold 70 percent of the company in future.
"The geopolitical upheavals of the recent past have shown how important secure access to semiconductors is, especially for German industry," said Andreas Mundt, head of the authority. He does not believe that competition will be affected and that the investments are "fully compliant with merger control regulations".
The technology companies Bosch from Baden-Württemberg, Infineon from Bavaria and NXP from the Netherlands need large quantities of chips for their products, some of which they build themselves and some of which they obtain from contract manufacturers such as TSMC.
The ground-breaking ceremony for the new factory, which is also being made possible thanks to extensive subsidies, is scheduled to take place in the second half of 2024, with production expected to start in 2027. Most of the chips manufactured in Dresden will probably be used in cars. (dpa)
