Infineon opens Austrian chip plant ahead of schedule

VILLACH, Austria — Infineon Technologies opened a 1.6-billion-euro ($1.9 billion) plant in Austria, boosting the German semiconductor company’s ability to supply power chips for cars, datacenters and renewable power generation.

The plant in Villach, ready three months early, will make chips on 300 mm wafers thinner than a human hair, operating in tandem as a ‘megafab’ with an existing plant in Dresden, Germany and adding up to 2 billion euros a year in revenues, the supplier said in a statement on Friday.

The extra production of specialist power chips in Villach will serve growing demand for EVs, datacenters and wind- and solar-power facilities. But it will not immediately help ease the broader semiconductor crunch, say analysts.

“Our timing in adding new capacity couldn’t be better, considering growing demand for power-management semiconductors,” CEO Reinhard Ploss said before an opening ceremony with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and EU Commissioner Thierry Breton.

Ploss said that Infineon would not gouge buyers currently willing to pay astronomical prices, but it did need to defray the investment costs it faces to meet booming demand. “We expect significant price increases,” he told reporters.

Separately, Ploss said he expects silicon chip prices to rise significantly, adding that semiconductor makers needed to cover the cost of investments to meet booming demand.

“We expect significant price increases,” Ploss said, adding that the chipmaker would not sell to the highest bidder at a time when customers were willing to pay astronomical prices.

“We are a reliable partner when things go up and when they go down,” he said.