Globalfoundries on June 22 broke ground for a new 12-inch wafer fab at its Singapore campus, according to the pure-play foundry.

More than US$4 billion will be poured into the new fab, said GF, which expects to open the fab in 2023. An additional 450,000 12-inch wafers will be built annually when the new fab comes online, bringing the overall production capacity at GF's Singapore campus to approximately 1.5 million wafers per year.

"GF is meeting the challenge of the global semiconductor shortage by accelerating our investments around the world," said GF CEO Tom Caulfield. "Our new facility in Singapore will support fast-growing end-markets in the automotive, 5G mobility and secure device segments with long-term customer agreements already in place."

GF also has planned capacity expansions at its manufacturing sites in the US and Germany. "Working in close collaboration with our customers and the Government of Singapore is a recipe for success that we are pioneering here and looking forward to replicating in the US and Europe," Caulfield noted.