Marvell founders launch $2.6b chips foundry in Singapore

SINGAPORE - Singapore-based Silicon Box opened a US$2 billion (S$2.6 billion) advanced semiconductor manufacturing foundry in the city-state on Thursday (July 20), as it seeks to broaden adoption of "chiplet" technology.

The two-year old startup said in a statement that the 73,000-square metre factory would create over 1,000 jobs with support from Singapore's Economic Development board.

Silicon Box was created by the founders of US chipmaker Marvell, Sehat Sutardja and wife Weili Dai, along with current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) BJ Han.

Silicon Box focuses on "chiplets", or small chips, which can be the size of a grain of sand and are brought together in a process called advanced packaging, a cost-efficient way to bind small semiconductors into form one processor that can power everything from data centres to household appliances.

The global chip industry has increasingly embraced the technology in recent years as chip manufacturing costs soar in the race to make transistors small enough to be measured in the number of atoms.

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