Bosch to acquire US chipmaker TSI
Company plans to invest $1.5 billion in SiC technology for electromobility
Bosch is expanding its SiC semiconductor business with plans to acquire assets of the US chipmaker TSI Semiconductors, based in Roseville, California. The aim is to significantly expand its portfolio of SiC devices by the end of 2030 to meet demand from electric cars.
With a workforce of 250, TSI is a foundry for application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Currently, it mainly develops and produces large volumes of chips on 200mm silicon wafers for applications in mobility, telecommunications, energy, and life sciences.
Over the next years, Bosch intends to invest more than $1.5 billion in the Roseville site and convert the TSI Semiconductors manufacturing facilities to state-of-the-art processes. Starting in 2026, the first chips will be produced on 200mm wafers based on SiC, following a retooling phase. The SiC chips will be produced on 200mm wafers in a facility offering roughly 10,000 square meters of clean-room space.
The full scope of the planned investment will be heavily dependent on federal funding opportunities available via the CHIPS and Science Act as well as economic development opportunities within the State of California. Bosch and TSI Semiconductors have reached an agreement to not to disclose any financial details of the transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval.
“With the acquisition of TSI Semiconductors, we are establishing manufacturing capacity for SiC chips in an important sales market while also increasing our semiconductor manufacturing, globally. The existing clean-room facilities and expert personnel in Roseville will allow us to manufacture SiC chips for electromobility on an even larger scale,” says Stefan Hartung, the chairman of the Bosch board of management.
“The location in Roseville has existed since 1984. Over nearly 40 years, the US company has built up vast expertise in semiconductor production. We will now be integrating this expertise into the Bosch semiconductor manufacturing network,” says Markus Heyn, member of the Bosch board of management and chairman of the Mobility Solutions business sector. “We are pleased to join a globally operating technology company with extensive semiconductor expertise. We are confident that our Roseville location will be a significant addition to Bosch’s SiC chipmaking operations,” says Oded Tal, CEO at TSI Semiconductors.
Ramping up
By 2025, Bosch expects to have an average of 25 of its chips integrated in every new vehicle. The market for SiC chips is also continuing to grow fast – by 30 percent a year on average. The main drivers of this growth are the global boom and ramp-up of electromobility. In electric vehicles, SiC chips enable greater range and more efficient recharging, as they use up to 50 percent less energy. Installed in these vehicles’ power electronics, they ensure that a vehicle can drive a significantly longer distance on one battery charge – on average, the possible range is 6 percent greater than with silicon-based chips.
Bosch has been manufacturing semiconductors in Reutlingen, Germany, since 1970. Production at the new Bosch wafer fab in Dresden (300mm wafers) started in July 2021. At nearly one billion euros, the Dreden wafer fab is the biggest single investment in the company’s history.
Bosch invested in the development and production of SiC chips at an early stage. Since 2021, it has been using its own proprietary processes to mass-produce them at Reutlingen. In the future, Reutlingen will also produce them on 200mms wafers. By the end of 2025, the company says it will have extended its clean-room space in Reutlingen from roughly 35,000 to more than 44,000 square meters. “SiC chips are a key component for electrified mobility. By extending our semiconductor operations internationally, we are strengthening our local presence in an important electric vehicle market,” Heyn says.
In its wafer fabs in Reutlingen and Dresden, Bosch has invested more than €2.5 billion in total since 200mm technology was introduced in 2010. On top of this, billions of euros have been invested in developing microelectronics. Independently of the investment now planned in the United States, the company announced in summer last year that it will be investing a further €3 billion in its semiconductor business in Europe, both as part of its investment planning and with the aid of the EU’s “Important Project of Common European Interest on Microelectronics and Communication Technologies” program.
