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At full capacity, the plant will be able to generate 1,600 new jobs.
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Silicon Box has chosen Novara, in Piedmont, as the location for its new maxi-production plant for the creation of chiplet integration and advanced packaging and testing foundry, the first of its kind in Europe for a total investment of 3.2 billion euros.
The announcement was made during the press conference for the signing of the letter of intent that took place on Friday morning at Palazzo Piacentini, headquarters of Mimit, in the presence of the Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, the co-founders of Silicon Box, CEO Byung Joon (BJ) Han, Sehat Sutardja and Weili Dai, the President of the Piedmont Region, Alberto Cirio, and the Mayor of Novara, Alessandro Canelli.
The Novara site was selected by the company through a detailed evaluation process, with the support of independent experts and consultants. At full capacity, the plant will be able to generate 1,600 new direct jobs, in addition to indirect ones for the construction of the factory and for the supplies and logistics associated with it. The plant will be built and operated according to European net zero principles, minimising the impact on the environment. The investment is currently still subject to approval by the European Commission.
The site will help meet the demand for semiconductor assembly, primarily in the European market, to enable new technologies such as next-generation applications in artificial intelligence, high-performance computing and components for electric vehicles.
“The announcement – Urso underlined – confirms the validity of our strategic plan on microelectronics: there is a flywheel effect of investments on chips in Italy. Silicon Box is truly a model case, unique in the international panorama, it will be the first chiplet production plant in Europe. An industrial partner that will make us grow in the high-tech sector and that will allow us to increase our design capabilities and know-how”.
Urso then added that «from the beginning of 2024, if we add the investment of Silicon Box to that of STMicroelectronics and other smaller ones by foreign companies in Italy – in addition to the assignment of the pilot line on high-resistance materials that the European Commission wanted to build in the Etna Valley in Sicily – we arrive at a total amount of over 9 billion euros on microelectronics in our country. A figure, only in the first six months of the year, not found in any other European country».
The President of the Piedmont Region, Alberto Cirio, reiterated during the meeting the importance of the results achieved in these years at the helm of the Region: «My first term as President of Piedmont ended with the important result of the second car model in Mirafiori in Turin and the second begins with the crowning of a job that has engaged us in recent months, with the government, the Municipality of Novara and Silicon Box for an extraordinary investment, of over 3 billion euros, which arrives in Piedmont with over 1600 jobs in a sector, that of chips and semiconductors, which represents the future of manufacturing and which adds to other investments announced in recent weeks to confirm how strategic the choice of the Italian government is to establish the headquarters of the Foundation for Artificial Intelligence in Piedmont and Turin».
The arrival of the Singaporean multinational in Novara represents the second major investment in Italy in the microelectronics sector in a few weeks, after the 5 billion investment announced at the end of May by STMicroelectronics for the construction of a new plant in Catania for the large-volume production of 200 mm silicon carbide (SiC) for devices and power modules, as well as for testing and packaging activities.
