From 2025 to early 2026, the global semiconductor manufacturing industry encountered a rare "construction halt wave," with multiple heavyweight wafer fab projects being suspended or canceled in succession, triggering violent shocks throughout the industrial chain. Among these, the joint venture wafer fab project between GlobalFoundries and STMicroelectronics in Crolles, France, and the silicon carbide (SiC) wafer fab project by Sumitomo Electric in Japan were successively announced as halted or canceled, becoming the two most iconic incidents in this industry adjustment.

EU ST-GF Fab Project Stalled

In January 2026, Bloomberg reported that the joint wafer fab project between GlobalFoundries and STMicroelectronics in Crolles, France, had fallen into stagnation. Since its launch in 2023, the project had progressed slowly and was substantially suspended by mid-2025.

In July 2022, the two parties signed an agreement to build a new 12-inch (300mm) wafer fab adjacent to the existing Crolles facility near Grenoble, France, adopting Fully Depleted Silicon-on-Insulator (FD-SOI) technology covering GlobalFoundries' 22FDX process and STMicroelectronics' 18nm node. The total project investment was estimated at €7.5 billion, including €2.9 billion in state aid from the French government under the EU Chips Act. The fab was originally scheduled for full production in 2026 with an annual capacity of 620,000 wafers.

FD-SOI technology, with its low power consumption, high reliability, and radiation resistance, was considered ideal for automotive electronics, industrial IoT, and edge AI applications. However, market demand fluctuations and rigid policy mechanisms ultimately caused this ambitious plan to fail. More structurally problematic, under EU state aid rules, once a major industrial partner withdraws investment, public funds are simultaneously frozen unless the plan is formally revised and re-approved by the European Commission. This policy rigidity means that even during suspension, funds cannot be flexibly reallocated for R&D or pre-industrialization purposes.

Japanese SiC Fab Canceled Due to Weak EV Demand

Almost simultaneously, Sumitomo Electric announced the cancellation of its silicon carbide (SiC) wafer fab construction plan. Announced in 2023, this project originally planned to invest ¥30 billion, located in Takaoka City, Toyama Prefecture, with expected production start in 2027. Additionally, Sumitomo Electric also canceled its plan to build a new production line in Itami City, Hyogo Prefecture, which originally targeted achieving an annual production capacity of 180,000 SiC wafers by 2027.

Sumitomo Electric's strategic contraction directly stemmed from weak demand in the electric vehicle market and uncertainty regarding the demand recovery timeline. As a global giant in automotive wiring harnesses and power cables, Sumitomo Electric chose to reallocate resources to its core competency areas—automotive wiring harnesses, power cables for environmental energy, and optical components for data centers—to maintain stable overall business growth.

Domino Effect of Wafer Industry Adjustment

These two construction halt incidents were not isolated phenomena. Since 2024, the global silicon carbide industry has entered a deep adjustment period:

1. Wolfspeed: In August 2024, announced the closure of its 6-inch SiC wafer fab in Durham, North Carolina, and indefinitely postponed construction plans for its factory in Saarland, Germany; in May 2025, officially initiated bankruptcy protection proceedings.

2. Rohm Semiconductor: In January 2025, postponed the production start date of its new SiC factory in Miyazaki Prefecture from 2024 to 2025.

3. Renesas Electronics: In May 2025, terminated its silicon carbide business plan, selling equipment from its Takasaki factory in Gunma Prefecture, and returned to the traditional silicon-based market.

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