The CEO of Stmicroelectronics, the semiconductor company controlled by the Italian Ministry of Economy and the French public bank Bpifrance, has announced a further expansion of the Crolles plant in France by the end of 2026. This revelation could prove negative for the company’s plants in Italy, particularly for the Agrate Brianza site, dedicated to 300-millimeter silicon wafers: 300-millimeter wafers are also produced in Crolles, but with a different final application.
WHAT CHERY SAID ABOUT CROLLES
During his speech at a conference in Geneva, Switzerland, CEO Jean-Marc Chery spoke about an acceleration in demand for silicon photonics – a technology that, simply put, uses light to transfer data at high speed – linked to data centers for artificial intelligence.
Crolles is Stmicroelectronics’ main production site for silicon photonics. In this regard, Chery stated that the company must “decide by the end of the year whether to proceed with a further expansion at Crolles. That is probably what we will do.”
WHAT NEAR-PACKAGE OPTICS IS
Chery also spoke about a shift to so-called near-package optics, a microchip assembly technology that involves placing optical engines (the devices that exploit silicon photonics) next to the server processor, in order to speed up connections and reduce power consumption. This shift – he said – will require a decision on production capacity at Crolles, where infrastructure has already been built to support silicon photonics activities until early 2028.
REVENUE FORECASTS RELATED TO DATA CENTERS
On Tuesday, Stmicroelectronics raised its revenue forecasts for the data center division, which should reach 1 billion dollars this year. The company aims to reach a market share of 30 percent; currently it is at 5 percent.
The 1 billion target for the data center segment was originally planned for 2030. The first quarter of 2026 ended with overall positive results exceeding expectations: revenues amounted to 3.1 billion and operating income was 171 million.
Last February, Stmicroelectronics announced a collaboration with Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing service company of the Amazon group, with which it had already collaborated on the development of the PIC100 silicon photonics technology.
STMICROELECTRONICS’ PLANS FOR AGRATE
The Stmicroelectronics plant in Agrate is expected to receive an additional investment of 1.4 billion euros in the 2025-2027 period to expand the manufacturing capacity of 300-millimeter wafers: the output will be increased from about 2000 wafers per week to 7500-8000. After 2027, the company plans to further increase the site’s production capacity to 14,000 wafers per week.
The Crolles plant is not in direct competition with Agrate because each is dedicated to a different technology: silicon photonics on one side, power management chips on the other. However, it is possible that, given the origin of demand, Stmicroelectronics may decide to concentrate investments in France rather than Italy.
