Has Silicon Box selected Novara for its Italy plant?
The Singapore firm is believed to have chosen the Piedmont region in the north of the country to be the location of its proposed EUR 3 billion manufacturing facility.
In March, Silicon Box received backing from the Italian government to construct a major new facility in the country, which is expected to create 1,600 direct jobs.
Now, sources have told Reuters that the firm is likely to select the city of Novara from a shortlist also including two sites in the northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto.
Italy is trying to position itself as a supportive destination for chip firms in the face of fierce competition from other Euroopean countries. The country was part of Intel's board plans for European expansion but discussions relating to this project appear to have stalled. The Italian PM said earlier this year that Italy was ready to offer EUR 4.75 billion in state help to attract foreign chipmakers.
Silicon Box is a chiplet specialist whose package design and fabrication method provides an alternative to relying on a single monolithic chip. Instead it leverages multiple smaller chips – chiplets – interconnected in a single system-on-chip package.
