SINGAPORE: As part of its major international manufacturing expansion, GlobalFoundries, the world's third-largest contract chipmaker, launched a semiconductor fabrication plant in Singapore this week.

Tan Yew Kong, the U.S. chipmaker's general manager in Singapore, said the new 248,000-square foot facility, which costs US$4 billion, can produce 450,000 300 millimeter wafers annually at full capacity, expected by 2025 to 2026, and will create 1,000 jobs.

"If we run the Singapore campus' capacity to the fullest, that will probably be around 45 percent of revenue for GlobalFoundries," he said.

The company expects weak global demand for chips to pick up by the second half of 2024, he added.

The company's Singapore operations will serve 200 international clients and include two other fabs producing 720,000 300mm wafers and 692,000 200mm wafers per year, respectively.

GlobalFoundries' chips are used in cars and 5G technology.

Amid a chip shortage during the COVID-19 pandemic that has now become a surplus, GlobalFoundries announced a $6 billion global expansion plan in 2021.

Singapore's chip production sector accounts for some 11 percent of the global market and is expected to grow as more chipmakers open or expand operations in the near future.