GREENSBORO, N.C. — IQE Inc., a global semiconductor manufacturer based in Wales, has announced plans to invest $305 million to expand its manufacturing facility in Greensboro to produce next-generation compound semiconductor material. The investment is subject to customer commitments and funding from the federal CHIPS Act. The expansion is expected to create 109 new jobs in North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad region, which sits between Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham along I-85.
“IQE’s major reinvestment in Guilford County is a testament to the quality of our world-class workforce, the strength of our business climate and our leadership in clean energy and technology,” says North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.
Operating in Greensboro for more than a decade and with 72 employees, IQE manufactures “epi wafers” using molecular beam epitaxy for the defense and aerospace industries. The new investment would add a complementary epitaxy called metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and would provide a new clean technology for semiconductor chip production to help serve the electric vehicle (EV) market.
North Carolina is growing its EV manufacturing base. For example, VinFast, an EV manufacturer based in Vietnam, is currently building out a $4 billion factory in nearby Chatham County.