Bosch plans to open a new automotive chip plant in June and testing is currently underway at the new semiconductor factory in Dresden, Germany.
Bosch has invested the equivalent of $1.2 billion in the high-tech manufacturing facility.
The facility will specialize in 300-millimeter fabrication, in which a single wafer can accommodate 31,000 individual chips.
When completed, the factory will support 700 new jobs, primarily in production and maintenance roles.
The plant will produce application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that will serve as the “brains” in new vehicles.
ASICs process information from sensors and trigger actions, like telling an airbag to deploy.
According to Reuters, these are not the semiconductor chips currently in short supply, but they could help fix some of the bottlenecks.
Funding for the new building was provided by the federal German government. The factory is located in Silicon Saxony, Dresden’s answer to Silicon Valley.
