Bosch is turning its Roseville, California wafer fab into what it says will be the world’s largest silicon carbide chip plant. The company finalized a $225 million CHIPS Act award in mid-July, part of a $2 billion investment to shift the site to 200-millimeter silicon carbide production.
Project Scope
Bosch bought the Roseville fab in 2023 and has been retooling it for silicon carbide, the material that makes EV inverters and grid power electronics run cooler and more efficiently. The conversion moves the plant from 150mm to 200mm wafers, roughly doubling usable chips per wafer. Sample production is already running, and Bosch expects the first commercial 200mm SiC chips out of Roseville this year. The buildout is projected to create up to 1,000 construction jobs and about 700 permanent manufacturing and R&D roles.
Why It Matters
Silicon carbide is a chokepoint in the EV supply chain, and most of it comes from overseas. A domestic 200mm SiC line is a hedge against that. The CHIPS money is small next to the megafabs in the news, but the payoff per dollar is high. Converting an existing fab is faster and cheaper than pouring a greenfield campus, and it puts advanced power chips on American soil quickly.
Project Team & Details
| Developer | Bosch |
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| Owner / Client | Robert Bosch Semiconductor |
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| Status | Under Construction |
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| Delivery Method | Design-Build |
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| Funding Source | Mixed |
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