The company, which already claims to be the world's largest manufacturer of semiconductors by units shipped – 90 billion units in 2019, .has announced plans to invest in 2021 to address growing demand for power semiconductors and to boost its gallium nitride capability.
These plans include increasing production efficiency at its European wafer fabs in Hamburg, Germany, and Manchester, England. In Hamburg there will be additional investment in equipment for wide bandgap semiconductor manufacturing.
Nexperia said it was increasing its R&D investment benchmark to 9 percent of total sales. In 2019 Nexperia's sales were more than $1.4 billion indicating a budget of at least $126 million. As the subsidiary of a Chinese company Nexperia no longer produces its own sales figures.
Nexperia recently opened new global R&D centers in Penang in Malaysia and Shanghai in China and expanded the existing R&D sites in Hong Kong, Hamburg and Manchester. The company will also enhance test and assembly capabilities at Nexperia factories in Guangdong in China, Seremban in Malaysia and Cabuyao in the Philippines, including the implementation of advanced automation and system-in-package (SIP) capabilities.
Nexperia was formerly a significant part of NXP Semiconductors but was acquired by Wingtech Technology Co. Ltd. (Shanghai, China) for $3.6 billion in 2019 (see Chinese firm to buy Nexperia for $3.6 billion). Wingtech is a contract manufacturer of smartphones, tablet computers and smart devices on behalf of Huawei Technologies and Xiaomi Corp. amongst others.
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