Semiconductor Production & Italy's Manufacturing Renaissance

Italy is renowned for its strong manufacturing traditions and has a diverse manufacturing sector - from Fiat to the tire manufacturer Pirelli and luxury fashion manufacturers like Gucci and Versace, Italian manufacturing is globally renowned. 

Now, the country is turning its attention to semiconductor manufacturing after Silicon Box announced its plan to collaborate with the Italian government and invest up to US$3.6bn (€3.2bn) in Italy, for a new, state-of-the-art semiconductor assembly and test facility. 

This comes after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government received approval to award €350m to a green hydrogen hub, which will support sustainable manufacturing across the country.

Italy to manufacture semiconductors for the global supply chain

There are many reasons that Italy made our Top 10 manufacturing countries. 

In a recent interview with Manufacturing Digital, Venchi's Marketing Director, Cècile Osti, discussed how the luxury chocolate manufacturer was moving in a sustainable direction, while Ferrari’s Silvia Gabrielli recently made our Top 10: Women in Manufacturing in the UK & Europe. 

Semiconductor packaging company Silicon Box is based in Singapore and offers solutions which enable chiplet architecture and high performance alternatives to other packaging schemes.

Silicon Box’s new foundry in Italy will be able to accept wafers from all foundries and support a wide variety of customers from across the world.

“The location is well suited to work with Europe’s existing and planned semiconductor wafer fabrication clusters in Italy, Germany, and France,” said Mike Han, Silicon Box’s Head of Business. “Proximity will enable close collaboration from design through to final manufacturing, and help increase resilience and cost efficiency of the European and global semiconductor supply chain, at a time when there is a global shortage for this type of technology.”

Once completed, the new facility will support approximately 1,600 Silicon Box employees in Italy. 

Green technologies and new manufacturing facilities 

Italy will also launch a new €1.1bn (US$1.2bn) subsidy programme to support green manufacturing. The European Commission has agreed for the Italian government to use part of its COVID-19 recovery funds to part-finance the initiative, which plans to direct grants of up to €350m for producers of green technologies to build new manufacturing facilities. 

“This Italian scheme will support the production of strategic equipment, namely batteries, solar panels, heat-pumps, wind turbines, electrolysers and carbon-capture usage and storage,” said Margrethe Vestager, the EC’s Executive Vice-President, who leads the policy. “These are key for the transition towards a net-zero economy. At the same time, the scheme ensures that possible competition distortions remain limited.”

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