Which Chipmakers Are Building New Fabs in '25?
GF, Intel, Micron, SK Hynix, SMIC, TSMC and others are building new fabs.
By Mark LaPedus
The semiconductor industry is expected to start 18 new fab construction projects in 2025, according to SEMI's latest quarterly World Fab Forecast report.
Some companies will build their new fabs and put them into production in 2026 or 2027. Still others could end up delaying their fab projects or scrapping them. This all depends on market conditions and other factors.
In total, the worldwide semiconductor industry is expected to reach $697 billion in 2025, up 11.2% over 2024, according to the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization.
Who is building fabs?
Fabs are an important part of the semiconductor industry. To make a semiconductor device, a company first designs a specific chip line using specialized software tools. Then, a semiconductor company manufactures chips based on that design in a large facility called a fab. It costs anywhere from $10 billion to $20 billion to build and equip an advanced fab.
At the end of 2022, there were a total of 167 fabs processing 300mm wafers worldwide, according to Knometa, a research firm. Plus, in 2022, there were 224 200mm fabs worldwide, according to SEMI.
Covering 2023 to 2025, the 4Q 2024 edition of SEMI’s World Fab Forecast report shows that the global semiconductor industry plans to begin operation of 97 new high-volume fabs. This includes 48 projects in 2024 and 32 projects set to launch in 2025, with wafer sizes ranging from 300mm to 50mm.
Semiconductor manufacturers need to plan ahead and build new fabs to meet future demand. As stated above, the semiconductor industry is expected to start 18 new fab construction projects in 2025, according to SEMI.
Micron, Intel, SK Hynix, SMIC, TSMC and other semiconductor companies are expected to start new fab projects in 2025, according to SEMI (See list below). SEMI’s fab forecast includes volume production fabs and epitaxial facilities, but it excludes R&D fabs.
“Keep in mind that it might take 1.5 to 2 years from the start of construction until a fab can begin volume production. So, if a company needs to start production in 2027, a fab needs to start construction in 2025,” said Christian Dieseldorff, an analyst at SEMI.
Nonetheless, the number of new fab construction projects is flat over last year. In 2024, the semiconductor industry registered a total of 19 new fab construction projects, according to SEMI. Eight of those projects were located in China, according to the trade group.
Of the 18 new fab construction projects slated to start in 2025, three are 200mm fabs, while fifteen are 300mm facilities, according to the report. The majority of these fabs are expected to begin operations from 2026 to 2027.
In 2025, the Americas and Japan are the leading regions with four projects each, according to the report. China and the Europe/Middle East regions are each tied for third place with three planned construction projects. Taiwan has two planned projects, while Korea and Southeast Asia have one project each for 2025, according to SEMI (See below for chart).
According to SEMI, here are some of the new fab construction projects in 2025:
Americas
*GlobalFoundries Fab 8.2 (Malta, N.Y.)—300mm foundry fab
*Intel D1X module 4 (Hillsboro, Ore.)—300mm logic/foundry fab
*Micron (Clay, N.Y.)—300mm DRAM fab
China
*CanSemi Phase 4 (Guangzhou)—300mm foundry fab
*CXMT Fab 3—300mm DRAM fab
*SMIC Fab 10 phase 2—300mm foundry fab
Europe/Middle East
*GlobalFoundries (Dresden, Germany)—300mm foundry fab
*OnSemi (Roznov, Czech Republic)—200mm silicon carbide (SiC) wafer and epi fab
Japan
*Sony (Kumamoto)—CMOS image sensor fab
*Toshiba (Nomi-shi, Ishikawa Prefecture)—300mm power semi fab
*TSMC Fab 23 phase 2 (Kumamoto)—300mm foundry fab
*UMC (Mie)—300mm foundry fab
South Korea
*SK Hynix (Yongin)—300mm DRAM/HBM fab
Taiwan
*TSMC Fab 20 P3 (Hsinchu)—300mm foundry fab
*TSMC Fab 22 P3 (Kaohsiung)—300mm foundry fab
Thailand
*FT1 (Lamphun) —200mm SiC fab
