Overview
- GlobalFoundries, which held a topping-out ceremony on Friday, confirmed the SPRINT expansion is on time and on budget with a €1.1 billion investment for the Dresden site.
- The company says the build will add about 5,000 m² of cleanroom and lab space and target more than one million 300‑mm wafers per year at Dresden by the end of 2028.
- The European Chips Act is providing €495 million of support for the project, tying the expansion to EU industrial policy aimed at boosting local semiconductor capacity.
- GF has announced a new FD‑SOI‑based process called FDX Fusion as a strategic goal, but it plans to start development only after receiving IPCEI AST funding approval; the process is pitched for mixed‑signal, RF and embedded memory uses rather than general‑purpose FinFET logic.
- The SPRINT work further grows Dresden’s Silicon Saxony cluster alongside Infineon and TSMC activity, which could improve supply for carmakers, defense and critical‑infrastructure firms and make the region a larger hub for specialized chips.