Bosch Bumps Up Its Bet on SiC Chip Technology

German Tier 1 supplier Bosch is doubling down on the future of silicon-carbide chips, announcing it is acquiring U.S. producer TSI Semiconductors and will invest $1.5 billion in the company’s Roseville, CA, production site over the next few years.

TSI Semiconductors currently makes 200-mm silicon wafers for applications in the mobility, telecommunications, energy and life-sciences industries. The investment in state-of-the-art production process will allow the operation to produce 200-mm wafers based on silicon-carbide material beginning in 2026, Bosch says.

The company isn’t disclosing the purchase price but says the TSI Semiconductors acquisition will significantly extend its global portfolio of SiC chips by the end of 2030. Bosch sees the ramp-up of battery-electric vehicles driving demand for SiC chips, which it says are up to 50% more energy efficient and help extend BEV range roughly 6%.

The deal is subject to regulatory approval and the full scope of the planned investment will be heavily dependent on federal funding opportunities available through the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act, as well as economic development funding from California, the supplier says.

“With the acquisition of TSI Semiconductors, we are establishing manufacturing capacity for SiC chips in an important sales market while also increasing our semiconductor manufacturing, globally,” says Bosch Chairman Stefan Hartung. “The existing clean-room facilities and expert personnel in Roseville will allow us to manufacture SiC chips for electromobility on an even larger scale.”

Bosch’s planned investment in the Roseville operation will build off existing facilities to create a roughly 108,000-sq.-ft. (10,000-sq.-m) clean room for production of the SiC wafers. That investment, plus an expansion of its Reutlingen, Germany, plant’s clean room from 377,000 sq.-ft. (35,000 sq.-m) to 474,000 sq.-ft. (44,000 sq.-m) by 2025, will greatly increase the supplier’s ability to meet SiC-chip demand, said to be growing at a rapid clip of 30% annually.

By 2025, Bosch expects to have an average of 25 of its chips integrated into every new vehicle.

Overall, Bosch has invested more than €2.5 billion ($2.8 billion) in its wafer fab plants in Reutlingen and Dresden, Germany, since 2010.  Bosch has pledged to pour another €3 billion ($3.3 billion) into its semiconductor business in Europe.