Amkor Technology, Inc. and GlobalFoundries (GF) have agreed to form a strategic partnership. Particularly, the new partnership will enable a comprehensive EU/US supply chain from semiconductor wafer production at GF to OSAT services at Amkor’s site in Porto, Portugal.

GF plans to transfer its 300mm Bump and Sort lines from its Dresden site to Amkor’s Porto operations to establish the first at-scale back-end facility in Europe. Meanwhile, GF will maintain ownership of its transferred tools, processes, and IP in Porto. Both partners also plan to collaborate on future development efforts in Portugal.

Expands Manufacturing Scale

Today, Amkor is the only high-volume, Tier 1 OSAT in Europe, and GF Dresden is Europe’s largest and most advanced semiconductor manufacturing services company. This partnership enables the first semiconductor manufacturing (foundry) through advanced packaging semiconductor supply chain outside of Asia, creating more European supply chain autonomy for key end markets including automotive.

“This strategic partnership with GF will enhance the advanced semiconductor packaging supply chain in Europe and ramp up competitive capacity to complement what is available in Asia,” said Kevin Engel, Amkor’s Executive Vice President, Business Units. “Amkor’s collaboration with GF enables us to significantly expand manufacturing scale and bring to market additional assembly and test capability to support our European and global customers.”

Mike Hogan, GlobalFoundries Chief Business Officer, said, “GF remains committed to growing our European manufacturing ecosystem to support local and global customers, especially in the Automotive markets. Particularly, this partnership with Amkor in Portugal will provide much needed services within the EU and expand the US-European semiconductor supply chain.”

At this pivotal time in the semiconductor industry, manufacturers and suppliers are facing political, industrial, technological, and financial disruptions. For that reason, Amkor’s global support and local presence combined with GF’s tools and processes will provide big help. Particularly, enabling the Porto site to help the European Union pursue its goals of ensuring supply chain stability and delivering the next-generation automotive and other critical chip solutions.