Consulting firm Kearney has prepared an index determining which countries are the most attractive destinations for investment in back-end semiconductor production. Poland came in fifth in the ranking. Only Taiwan, Malaysia, India and China have a better investment climate when it comes to processors. In Europe, we are the best destination, followed closely by Hungary and for a long, long time no one from Europe (the Czech Republic is only 14th).
Poland is an attractive destination for microprocessor investments. But there is a catch
Semiconductor production is divided into front-end and back-end:
- “Front-end is a part of semiconductor component production that covers the entire process of manufacturing a semiconductor structure chip.
- Back-end is the part of semiconductor assembly production that includes the process of assembling a single chip into a package and testing the final finished assembly. This stage also includes cutting the entire semiconductor wafer into individual chips” – translates the website mikrokontroler.pl.
The first production is much more technologically advanced. It is during this phase that semiconductor structures such as transistors, resistors and capacitors are created and placed on silicon wafers. Poland did not make it into the twin index for front-end production.
When it comes to back-end manufacturing, Kearney emphasizes that the Polish government has been working closely with Intel, which was supposed to receive tailored financial incentives for the investment, not publicly available. “Poland is strategically well-positioned as the European Union strengthens its local semiconductor network and offers a relatively lower operating cost option to support its front-end manufacturing plants in Germany, Ireland and France,” it reads.
Intel delays investments in Poland. The company has financial problems
“Intel is suspending its key investments in Europe for two years – including the construction of a factory in Poland – due to the company's global financial problems. I was informed about this by Pat Gelsinger, the head of Intel” – Krzysztof Gawkowski, Minister of Digital Affairs, announced last week.
“Although some (including former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki) tried to forcefully prove that this decision is the result of negligence on the part of Donald Tusk's government, this diagnosis is completely wrong. And it is not at all about the fact that at the same time the American giant is also withdrawing from a similar investment in Germany. This decision is primarily a 'side effect' of Intel's new strategy. A strategy that assumes the reconstruction of the company's business model, as announced by the company's president Pat Gelsinger” – our journalist Daniel Maikowski wrote in a text in which he explains the whole mess with Intel.