US semiconductor manufacturer Vishay Intertechnology is investing £51m in Newport Wafer Fab, the UK’s largest semiconductor facility.
The wafer fabrication facility based in Newport, Wales, has had a turbulent past in terms of ownership. Built in 1982 by British semiconductor company Inneos, the facility has been bought and sold numerous times over the intervening years.
Located on 28 acres, the 200mm semiconductor wafer fab has a capacity to produce more than 30,000 wafers per month.
Most controversially, in 2021 Dutch chip firm Nexperia, which is wholly owned by Shanghai-based Wingtech, confirmed plans to acquire the production facility in a deal valued at £63m.
However, in May 2022 this acquisition was called in for a full national security assessment by the UK government. MPs had expressed concern that a security review into the purchase of the plant had still not been carried out, despite possible links between Nexperia and the Chinese state government.
In November 2022, the UK government...