onsemi scraps $2 billion SiC expansion in the Czech Republic

The decision reflects changing dynamics in the global SiC market and the project’s economics, according to a press release from onsemi. The company stresses that it says nothing about the Czech investment climate. Existing silicon and SiC production in Rožnov is not affected, and onsemi says it expects to keep investing and hiring at its sites in Rožnov and Brno, where research and development also continues.

According to the release, Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Karel Havlíček said the most important thing for the government is that the company’s existing production in Rožnov will continue unchanged.

When onsemi presented the plans in 2024, the brownfield investment was to establish a Central European supply chain for SiC power semiconductors for electric vehicles, renewable energy and AI data centres. onsemi described it at the time as one of the largest private investments in Czech history. In November 2025, the European Commission approved Czech state aid of EUR 450 million for the project, which by then was valued at EUR 1.64 billion. Commercial production was expected to start by 2027.

The Rožnov site is far from new to SiC. In 2022, onsemi inaugurated an expanded SiC fab there, as part of an investment of around USD 450 million that was to increase the site’s SiC wafer capacity sixteenfold over two years. When the larger expansion was announced in 2024, the site already produced more than three million wafers and over a billion power devices a year, according to onsemi.