AMD pouring $2.5B into Dresden upgrades

May 30, 2006 – AMD plans to spend an additional $2.5 billion over the next three years, to expand capacity at its semiconductor production facilities in Dresden, Germany.

Most of the investments will go toward equipment upgrades at the company’s Fab 30 200mm site, which will be ramped down in 2H07, converted to 300mm production and renamed Fab 38, and restarted by the end of 2008. Also, AMD also plans to build a new cleanroom to handle growing bump and test requirements, which previously were handled by cleanrooms in Fab 30 and Fab 36. That new facility, to open in 2007, will open up more production floorspace in both Fab 36 and Fab 38. All told, the upgrades could boost overall production at AMD’s Dresden operations to full capacity of 45,000 300mm wafer starts/month by the end of 2008.

“As global demand continues to rise for AMD products, we are scaling our manufacturing capacity intelligently to meet our customers’ growing needs,” stated Hector Ruiz, chairman and CEO of AMD. He added that the new investments in the company’s Dresden facilities “highlight how significant Germany and Europe are to the future of AMD competitiveness.”

Industry watchers had speculated that AMD might invest in facilities in Asia, particularly Singapore, where it already has backend facilities, and a tight partnership with Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

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