On June 7, San‘an Optoelectronics and STMicroelectronics jointly announced that they had signed an agreement to set up a factory in Chongqing to produce 8-inch silicon carbide wafers.

It is understood that the joint venture project company will be held by San‘an Optoelectronics, tentatively named "San‘an STMicroelectronics (Chongqing) Co., Ltd.", of which Hunan San‘an, a wholly-owned subsidiary of San‘an Optoelectronics, holds 51% shares, and STMicroelectronics (China) Investment Co., Ltd. holds 49% shares. The total investment of the project is expected to reach 3.2 billion US dollars. It is planned to start production in the fourth quarter of 2025, and it is expected to be fully completed in 2028. At that time, the patented silicon carbide manufacturing process technology of STMicroelectronics will be used, and after reaching the capacity, 10000 8-inch silicon carbide wafers can be produced per week. The 8-inch silicon carbide substrate factory established solely by San‘an Optoelectronics in Chongqing plans to invest approximately 7 billion yuan. It will use its own silicon carbide substrate process to establish and operate independently to meet the substrate needs of the joint venture factory, and sign a long-term supply agreement with it.

Lin Kechuang, General Manager of San‘an Optoelectronics, stated: "The establishment of the joint venture plant will inject new strength into the Chinese silicon carbide market. Both sides will give full play to their respective advantages, expand production capacity supply, vigorously promote the wide application of silicon carbide devices in the market, and boost the rapid development of the new energy automobile industry. This also reflects that the silicon carbide business of San‘an Optoelectronics has been fully recognized by international customers, which is an important step towards the goal of international silicon carbide professional wafer foundry One step. With the establishment of new joint venture factories and sole proprietorship substrate factories, we are confident that we will continue to occupy a dominant position in the silicon carbide Foundry model market. "

Jean Marc Chery, president and CEO of STMicroelectronics, said: "China‘s automotive and industrial fields are moving towards electrification at full speed. For STMicroelectronics, the establishment of a special wafer factory with important local partners will help us meet the growing needs of Chinese customers in the most efficient way The combination of manufacturing plants will be able to provide Chinese customers with a fully Vertical integration silicon carbide value chain. This is also an important step for us to further expand our global silicon carbide manufacturing business, in addition to our continued significant investments in Italy and Singapore.