- Intel and Tower Semiconductor, an Israeli manufacturer of analog semiconductor circuits, have announced a definitive agreement under which Intel will acquire Tower for $53 per share in cash, for a total value of approximately $5.4 billion.
- Intel believes that Tower’s manufacturing capabilities and technologies are complementary to those of its Intel Foundry Services (IFS) business.
- The U.S.-based company plans to leverage these synergies to gain further traction in the nearly $100 billion semiconductor foundry market.
“Tower’s technology portfolio, geographic coverage, customer relationships and service-oriented operations will help expand Intel’s foundry services and achieve our goal of becoming a leading global semiconductor component manufacturer,” said Pat Gelsinger, Intel’s CEO.
As part of its IDM 2.0 strategy, Intel established Intel Foundry Services (IFS) in March 2021 to meet the growing global demand for semiconductor manufacturing capabilities and to have significant IC manufacturing capabilities in the U.S. and Europe to serve its customers worldwide. IFS currently has manufacturing capabilities in the U.S. and Europe and plans to expand into other regions of the world in the future.
Tower has expertise in a variety of technologies for custom analog semiconductor manufacturing: radio frequency (RF), high performance analog (HPA), integrated power management, CMOS image sensors (CIS), non-imaging sensors (NIS) and mixed-signal CMOS, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS).
The company serves the cell phone, automotive, consumer electronics, healthcare, industrial, aerospace and defense markets.
Tower Semiconductor operates eight manufacturing facilities in three geographic regions: two entities (150mm and 200mm) located in Migdal Haemek, Israel; two other sites (200mm) in the United States (Newport Beach, California and San Antonio, Texas); one site in Agrate, Italy (300mm); and three sites in Japan (two 200mm and one 300mm) operated under its partnership with Nuvoton Technology Corporation (formerly Panasonic Semiconductor Solutions). It has a production capacity of over 2 million wafers per year.
Intel conducts research and development activities in the United States and also has manufacturing facilities there. The capacity of these factories in Arizona and New Mexico will be increased while the construction of a new mega-site is planned in Ohio.
