Italian and French semiconductors and San'an Optoelectronics plan to set up a factory in Chongqing to produce key components of electric vehicles with a total investment of 3.2 billion US dollars.

CTOnews.com, June 7 (Xinhua)-- European chipmakers St and San'an Optoelectronics said today that they plan to set up a joint venture plant in Chongqing, China to manufacture 8-inch silicon carbide (SiC) devices, which are mainly used in electric vehicles, industrial power and other energy sectors.

According to the official website of ▲, the total cost of the new joint venture plant is expected to be about $3.2 billion (CTOnews.com Note: currently about 22.784 billion yuan), of which $2.4 billion is expected to be invested in the next five years (currently about 17.088 billion yuan). The plant is expected to start production in the fourth quarter of 2025 and be fully completed in 2028.

At the same time, Sanan Optoelectronics will use its own SiC substrate process to build and operate a new 8-inch SiC substrate manufacturing plant separately to meet the substrate needs of the joint venture plant.

"China is developing rapidly in the direction of automotive and industrial electrification," said Jean-Marc Chery, an Italian semiconductor CEO. "this is a market that STMicros has already operated and has many important customers. Establishing specialized manufacturing enterprises with important local partners can meet the growing needs of our customers in the most effective way."

CTOnews.com previously reported that Jean-Mark Chery visited China in November last year, which is the first global semiconductor company CEO to visit China since the outbreak nearly three years ago. According to the financial report, STMicroelectronics's revenue in the first quarter of this year reached $4.25 billion (currently about 30.26 billion yuan), an increase of 19.8% over the same period last year, of which the operating profit of the Automotive products and discrete Devices Division (ADG) increased by 145.3% year-on-year.