I need to add that the UAE had plans for establishing a wafer fab in the country. Ultimately, the plant went nowhere. Not necessarily because it is their fault but primarily because it is a very difficult and high tech endeavor.
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ATIC preps Abu Dhabi for chip manufacturing
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Peter Clarke 06.01.2010 0
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LONDON Advanced Technology Investment Co. (ATIC), the Abu Dhabi government-owned investment vehicle behind foundry chip maker GlobalFoundries Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.), has announced it plans to create an “advanced technology cluster” in Abu Dhabi.
The site is set to include chip and other forms of manufacturing by multiple companies but is unlikely to include GlobalFoundries in the near term.
GlobalFoundries said it would put a manufacturing presence there eventually. Over the next couple of years GlobalFoundries is committed to expanding manufacturing at its wafer fabs in Dresden, Singapore and New York.
The ATIC “advanced technology cluster” site, measuring three square kilometers in size, is adjacent to Abu Dhabi International Airport. GlobalFoundries, which has wafer fabs in Dresden, Germany and Singapore and another fab under construction in New York State, said it is “committed to partnering with ATIC to share best practices and expertise in cluster creation in the near-term and putting a significant technology and manufacturing presence in the region long term.”
The goal for the site is to be the Middle Eastern hub of a global technology and manufacturing network to support the long-term deployment of capital for ATIC portfolio companies. However, ATIC did not indicate what steps it would take to attract other companies to the site or what it was prepared to spend to build out infrastructure there. Nor did ATIC provide a timetable for when companies would be established on site.
“The formation of the new GlobalFoundries was predicated on creating a world-class technology and manufacturing company that had the scale and resources to compete for industry leadership in this capital intensive market,” said Ibrahim Ajami, chief executive officer of ATIC, in a statement issued by GlobalFoundries. “For ATIC, this also represented the first step in Abu Dhabi's vision to become a leader in the semiconductor industry. Today we announce the next phase as we take our first steps in establishing a world-class advanced technology cluster over the coming years. We look forward to working with the GlobalFoundries team to leverage the collective successes of Singapore, Dresden and New York as we create the industry's next innovation cluster in Abu Dhabi.”
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Peter Clarke
Industry veteran Peter Clarke runs EETimes Europe's Analog website. With special interests in emerging technology and startups, he's been writing about the semiconductor industry since 1984 and wrote for EE Times US from 1994 to 2013.
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Singapore starts training Abu Dhabi fab workers
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Peter Clarke 05.30.2011 0
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LONDON – Teaching institute Singapore Polytechnic has signed an agreement to train wafer fab workers for Abu Dhabi. Some 50 men and women from the Emirate of Abu Dhabi will form the pioneering class following an agreement signed between the Abu Dhabi owned Advanced Technology Investment Co. (ATIC); foundry Globalfoundries Inc., which is majority-owned by ATIC; and Singapore Polytechnic.
ATIC and Globalfoundries have plans to spend up to $7 billion to build a wafer fab in Abu Dhabi and is reported to be preparing to break ground on the fab in 2012.
The Semiconductor Retooling training program, managed jointly by Globalfoundries, ATIC and Singapore Polytechnic, has been developed to tap into the Abu Dhabi unemployment market, alongside those who may be seeking new employment opportunities. It provides the opportunity to retrain and learn specialist semiconductor and engineering skills required for roles as wafer fabrication technologists at Globalfoundries' Abu Dhabi fab.
The program lasts two and a half years and has three main phases: Participants will study for six months in Abu Dhabi before traveling to Singapore to study at Singapore Polytechnic for one year. During the year in Singapore the students will focus on microelectronics and mechatronics. The third and final phase of the program provides one year of on-the-job training at one of Globalfoundries' wafer fabs in Singapore.
“This agreement represents our commitment at ATIC to developing local talent by providing them with world class learning opportunities and access to the industry’s best training facilities,” said Ibrahim Ajami, CEO of ATIC, in a statement.
In the same statement Tan Hang Cheong, Principal of Singapore Polytechnic, said: “As the first polytechnic in Singapore, SP is privileged to have this opportunity to share our experience and expertise in technical education with others. We hope this program will strengthen our ties and presence in the Middle East.”
ATIC did not state exactly when the program started or would start, whether or when there would be a further intake of participants, or how many people were expected to be trained under the program.
Ibrahim Ajami, CEO of ATIC (left) and Tan Hang Cheong, Principal of Singapore Polytechnic, sign wafer fab training agreement.
Related links and articles:
www.atic.ae
News articles:
Report: Abu Dhabi fab to break ground in 2012
SEMI Europe looks to Abu Dhabi
ATIC cash draws chip research to Abu Dhabi
Report: ATIC plans $7B chip fab in Abu Dhabi
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Peter Clarke
Industry veteran Peter Clarke runs EETimes Europe's Analog website. With special interests in emerging technology and startups, he's been writing about the semiconductor industry since 1984 and wrote for EE Times US from 1994 to 2013.
Ultimately, they gave up. "Postponed" as they say.
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Globalfoundries Abu Dhabi wafer fab postponed, says report
By
Peter Clarke 11.24.2011 0
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LONDON – Chip foundry Globalfoundries Inc. has postponed plans to start building a wafer fab in Abu Dhabi in 2012, due to uncertain global economic conditions, according to a local newspaper report.
Back in May 2011 it was reported that Globalfoundries (Milpitas, Calif.) was planning to spend between $6 billion and $8 billion building a wafer fab in Abu Dhabi with groundbreaking to take place in 2012 and chip production scheduled to start in 2015. Meanwhile the foundry is constructing a wafer fab in Malta, Saratoga County, New York. That plan has been put on hold with a re-assessment to come some time in 2012, the report said.
Globalfoundries was formed by the spin-off of manufacturing facilities belonging to processor company Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and the acquisition of Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Pte. Ltd. This provided Globalfoundries with close to leading-edge production facilities in Dresden, Germany and Singapore. The money for the purchases came from Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC), a sovereign wealth fund owned by the government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and Globalfoundries is 91 percent owned by ATIC.
“We will not be engaging in any ground breaking in Abu Dhabi in 2012,” a recent National report quoted Ibrahim Ajami, CEO of ATIC, as saying. The National is an Abu Dhabi English-language newspaper.
“Against the backdrop of a global economy still very volatile, we took a decision from a board level that we should not have another facility right now, but we should assess what happens before the end of 2012 on our growth strategy,” the report also quoted Ajami as saying.
The postponement of what had been ambitious capital expenditure plans come at a time when Globalfoundries is also struggling on a technical front and appears to be losing the confidence of its anchor customer AMD (see
Reports: AMD cancels Globalfoundries 28-nm APUs and
Opinion: AMD roadmap change helps TSMC?)
Many market analysts are predicting that 2012 will be a low- or no-growth year for the semiconductor market due to global economic uncertainty.
Related links and articles:
http://www.thenational.ae/business/technology/chip-maker-delays-plan-for-factory-in-capital
Opinion: AMD roadmap change benefits TSMC?
Reports: AMD cancels Globalfoundries 28-nm APUs
Report: Abu Dhabi fab to break ground in 2012
Globalfoundries: New York fab ready for kit
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Peter Clarke
Industry veteran Peter Clarke runs EETimes Europe's Analog website. With special interests in emerging technology and startups, he's been writing about the semiconductor industry since 1984 and wrote for EE Times US from 1994 to 2013.
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With the presence of 200 nationalities in the UAE, primarily from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Arab countries, Iran, Turkey, Africa, Russia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and a smattering of Western Europeans, Australians and North Americans, the UAE could not pull this project off.
Money was never a concern. The UAE possesses, after China, perhaps the second largest sovereign wealth funds in the world.
Infrastructure is not a concern. UAE's infrastructure is top-notch. The presence of 200 nationalities and expats outnumbering local citizens by a factor of 8 to 1, I guess that's the ratio today, attests to it.
The UAE could attract millions of Indians, Iranians, Pakistanis, Arabs, Turks, Russians, South Africans and other Africans. Yet this project could not materialize.
It attests to the difficulty involved.
Except for East Asia and the wider West - by which I include Western Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand and even Israel - there are no other populations which have successfully pulled off such a feat.
It is reasonable to include Israel as a member of the West. Its population consists in large part of European immigrants and it is protected by the West, in effective terms.
Not all hope is lost but if any populations outside these regions want to challenge the preeminence of the West, they would be in for a rude awakening.
And to be frank, East Asians so far have shown a grand inclination for imitation. Therefore, they are likely to always remain a step or two behind the collective West.
The West has a huge population - around 1 billion if count the entire West as a single unit, tremendous natural resources worth more than $100 trillion and much more unexplored resources, freedom, innovativeness - a trait apparently missing in East Asians - and drive.
Cost competitiveness should be of little concern for great powers or superpowers when it comes to acquiring and mastering strategically important technologies.
By failing to master wafer fabrication tech, all non Western countries and peoples will remain beholden to the West. East Asia has yet to master software (no indigenous OS of note) and hardware (no indigenous microprocessor with indigenous instruction set architecture, not sufficiently independent semiconductor equipment - you know, equipment used for wafer fabrication during photolithography, etching, deposition etc. - supply chains, no indigenous aero engine tech for wide body aircraft, i.e. high bypass turbofan engines, high end medical devices or even ultradeepwater oil and gas exploration equipment.
. Ther are critical technology you never will share, like ASML who wanted to sell machine to China and USA didn't allowed. If they would sold it they will never ever be working in America so ASML didn't sell the machine.
