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Comment by usrnm

5 hours ago

> The plant will produce chips for intelligent power management

> The company ... sought to capitalise on the massive AI investment boom

These chips are probably very useful and important, but I don't see what they have to do with AI. Does everything need to have the word AI these days?

7 comments

usrnm

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_fizz_buzz_  4 hours ago

Infineon is betting big on the 800V dc power distribution that seems to become the new standard for AI data centers which is directly relevant for the chips that are made in this fab.

1718627440  2 hours ago

I think this fab was already in construction before the AI hype, this is just marketing.

  • joe_mamba  2 hours ago

    Very bad marketing since the slop article doesn't even mention the process node of the fab.

    • topspin  1 hour ago

      "Process node," in the sense of logic, RAM or Flash density, isn't relevant here. These are power devices. Silicon Carbide FETS and whatnot; bulk current switching and related devices. Not frontier process node logic devices.

      That reality is carefully left unclear in all this "silicon sovereignty" narrative. It's a nice plant with new tooling cranking out 300mm wafers, but it's not the same game as a TSMC or Intel fab making cutting edge, high margin silicon, and there are a number of competitors making similar power devices around the world. And yes, the "AI" fluff is pure marketing nonsense; everyone needs lots of power devices for everything. Yes, they'll obviously seek lucrative contracts to supply exotic power devices for AI applications, but that stuff gets commoditized quickly.

alephnerd  5 hours ago

> don't see what they have to do with AI

Not directly. This fab is meant to primarily fabricate compound semiconductors which is Infineon's niche and is a major bottleneck for European industry today.

> Does everything need to have the word AI these days

Because Infineon's press release [0] for their compound semiconductor fab called out "AI".

Additonally, the "semiconductor" and "hardware" segment has now been rebranded has "AI" in a number of funds. By calling out something that's even tenuously tied to "AI", it allows funds that are contractually tied to investing in "AI" to purchase Infineon stock.

Investor relations is important as well.

[0] - https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/infineon-opens-the-...