Apple buys former Maxim chip fab in North San Jose, neighboring Samsung Semiconductor

Apple just paid $18.2 million for a small 70,000 square foot silicon chip fab, formerly owned by Samsung, located in North San Jose, California, about a 20 minute drive from its current Infinite Loop headquarters in Cupertino.

By Daniel Eran Dilger - Apple Insider, Dec. 14, 2015 – 

According to a report by Nathan Donato-Weinstein of the Silicon Valley Business Journal, the building had been operated by Maxim Integrated Products as a low volume manufacturing facility and supported process technology development.

Maxim closed the "X3" facility in July. It had originally acquired the plant from Samsung back in 1997. It sits next to a new 10-story building now under construction by Samsung Semiconductor, and is surrounded by buildings used by Cisco and a variety of other network and semiconductor firms.

Maxim marketed the property for use as an operational fab, noting that it would be "well suited for prototype, pilot, and low-volume manufacturing."

The listing agent added, "this facility is capable of producing a wide array of products at multiple technology nodes ranging from 600nm to 90nm, with the bulk of production from 350nm to 180nm."

Click here to read more...