GoKawiilDresden (Germany) (AFP) – German semiconductor giant Infineon opened a five-billion-euro ($5.7 billion) microchip plant Thursday, as Europe seeks to bolster its high-tech autonomy.
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The "Smart Power Fab" in the eastern city of Dresden, completed three months ahead of schedule, has been hailed as a symbol of an EU push to reduce dependency for crucial parts on Asia and the United States.
"We all want to further strengthen Europe's position as a semiconductor hub," Infineon CEO Jochen Hanebeck said at the opening ceremony. "And technological sovereignty does not begin with words, but with factories like this one."
The plant will produce chips for intelligent power management that are used in everything from electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar plants to data centres crucial for artificial intelligence.
The plant will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week with employees working in three shifts.
In the highly automated "clean rooms" where chips are manufactured, the air is continuously filtered to eliminate virtually all dust, and employees wear a polyester-carbon fibre blend suit, a hood, mask, latex gloves and boots to prevent any contamination.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz gives the thumbs up as he addresses the opening ceremony via video link © Ronny HARTMANN / AFP
The facility was backed by the EU's Chips Act with one billion euros in subsidies, part of a broader policy aimed at doubling the EU's share of global semiconductor production from 10 to 20 percent by 2030.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who addressed the event via live video link from Berlin, said the plant opening "has direct strategic significance for our digital sovereignty, our economic resilience and our independence".
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