The only top-ranked US-based outsourced semiconductor assembly and test ( OSAT ) service provider, Amkor Technology, has announced plans to construct a$ 2 billion facility in Arizona.
US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who is a strong supporter of constructing advanced integrated circuit ( IC ) packaging facilities domestically to lessen US dependence on Asia, will undoubtedly be pleased with the plan, which was announced on November 30.
The new center will organize, bundle, and test products made by Taiwan’s TSMC, the largest and most cutting-edge Circuit factory in the world that is constructing its own factories in Arizona. It will be planned in combination with Apple, Amkors first and largest client.
Amkor has worked with TSMC for a number of years. Apple, the maker of the phone, iPad, and ipod servers, is the company’s largest client. The second stage of Amkor’s innovative service should be ready for creation in late 2025 or 2026, while TSMC anticipates opening operations at its first shop in Arizona in the first half of the year.
Amkor intends to offer different Circuit market segments, such as high-performance computing and the chip-intensive auto industry, in addition to smartphones. Amkor is the largest OSAT services provider in the world for mechanical IC builders.
Amkor  has submitted an application for cash under the US CHIPS and Science Act, which offers subsidies to businesses that construct facilities there with the intention of boosting supply chain resilience, technological advancement, and silicon industry work.
The US government payment, according to Amkor’s administration,” may be essential to the project moving forward.” Amkor anticipates later hiring about 2,000 people at its Arizona center.
At the beginning of October, a group led by Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs traveled to Amkor Korea. Phoenix, Arizona’s governor, Kate Gallego, paid a visit in July.
The high-profile visits highlight the significance of new technological investment to Arizona’s economy as well as the long history of ties between the state and Amkor, which began in 1984.
According to market research firm IDC, Amkor held 15.9 % of the OSAT market in 2022, second only to Taiwan’s ASE, which held 27.6 %. China’s JCET and TFME, at 11.3 % and 7.1 %, respectively, followed Amkor, while Taiwanese PTI was at 6.4 %.
In 2022, Taiwan accounted for 49 % of the global OSAT market, followed by China 26 %, the US 19 %, and other combined regions. Three of the top 10 OSAT organizations have their headquarters in China, one in the US, and six in Taiwan. They collectively hold roughly 80 % of the OSAT business.
According to Allied Market Research, the global OSAT market was estimated to be worth around$ 35 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach$ 60 billion by the decade’s end.
There are two sides to the semiconductor fabrication procedure: the front end and the back end. Lots of chips are manufactured in the front-end method on a chip made of silicon or other components.
Personal chips are divided by dicing the wafers in the back-end approach, put together by fastening them to a circuit board, and then packaged and protected by being examined and tested before being shipped.
America and Korea are combined in the title Amkor. Two years after being founded as ANAM Industrial in South Korea and Amkor Electronics in the US in 1968, the organization started exporting packaged electronics “enclosed in copper cartons” to the United States. These were South Korea’s first-ever recorded silicon exports.
In 1998, Amkor Electronics changed its name to amkor Technology and was listed on the NASDAQ ( symbol AMKR ). It relocated its offices from Pennsylvania to Arizona in 2005.
For the contacts, automotive and industrial, computing, and consumer electronics business, it now offers Circuit assembly, package and check services. James Kim, the company’s founder and executive chairman, and his family own 53 % of Amkor Technology.
Three factories are located by Amkor Technology in South Korea, seven in Japan, four in Taiwan, two in the Philippines, one each in Malaysia, Vietnam, Portugal, and the United States. South Korea is home to the bank’s R&, D facility.
Amkor held the opening ceremony on October 11 for its innovative Circuit package and test service in Vietnam, which, when finished, will be the biggest in the world. On the program’s first two stages, the business is anticipated to spend$ 1.6 billion.
Giel Rutten, the president and CEO of Amkor, stated that the new shop” will help  , amkor@nnpspe, provide an unmatched geographic footprint to our clients, supporting global but also enabling local offer bars.”
Vietnam is an ideal location for Amkor, according to Rutten, “because of its huge and skilled labor, proper location, and support from government authorities.”
Not all silicon tests, package, and assembly are contracted out. Although the majority of them are based in Asia, Intel, TSMC, and another included silicon machine manufacturers have their own features.
For$ 3.5 billion, Intel has been modernizing its New Mexico-based facilities since 2021 to enable its most cutting-edge 3D packaging. However, the business, which has been present in Malaysia since 1972, is also making investments of about$ 7 billion there. It appears that Malaysia, never New Mexico, will serve as Intel’s main 3D testing and presentation location.
Malaysia has a modest OSAT appearance, but it makes up about 12 % of the world’s silicon assembly, package, and test capability.
According to unreliable energy energy supplies and excessive government, Intel had decided against doubling its presently sizable presence in Vietnam, according to Reuters, which cited unknown sources. Asia Times was unable to individually verify the assertion.
Accurate or no, it is obvious that the majority of the business will stay in Asia for the near future despite growing incentives to “reshore” or “friend- shore” capacity in the US, even though a little larger and more sophisticated IC packaging capability is being built there.
@ScottFo83517667 is the author’s Twitter account.