The Philippines may be targeting a wafer fabrication plant in Pax Silica, but it still lacks the workforce, supply chain and track record needed to attract commercial chipmakers, the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation Inc. (SEIPI) said.
SEIPI President Danilo Lachica said the lack of an established wafer fabrication track record could make it difficult for the country to convince major chipmakers to put up commercial facilities locally, particularly in the proposed 1,620-hectare development in New Clark City.
‘I would love to have a wafer (fabrication facility) in Pax Silica, (but) we’re not ready for that. It needs incremental steps,’ Lachica told reporters during a Pax Silica briefing in New Clark City on Friday.
‘You can’t convince a TSMC [Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.] or a TI [Texas Instruments] to build a wafer (fabrication plant) in the Philippines. We don’t have a track record.’
The Philippines has an established position in semiconductor assembly, testing and packaging, while its integrated circuit (IC) design industry is also beginning to expand.
However, it has yet to develop wafer fabrication, the stage where semiconductor wafers are manufactured before being processed into chips.
‘Because right now, when you talk to semiconductor companies, it’s just back-end assembly. They’re asking for advanced ATP [assembly, testing and packaging],’ Lachica said.
‘Their impression is that we’re just up to there. They don’t realize our full potential. That’s why we have to show the proof of concept.’
Another major hurdle for commercial wafer fabrication would be the power supply, Lachica said, given the large and continuous electricity requirements of such facilities.
Yet, he discussed one option to the authorities. ‘When I talk to agencies, the one possible solution is what we call SMRs or MMRs-small medium reactors or micro medium reactors. It’s placed next to a high power consumer.’
He said placing the reactors near large users could reduce the need for additional transmission infrastructure, while additional modules could be added as electricity requirements increase.
DOST lab
Before the Philippines attempts to attract commercial wafer fabrications, SEIPI is working with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) on a laboratory-scale facility that would demonstrate the country’s ability to fabricate wafers.
In a 2026 funding priorities document from the DOST’s Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD), a laboratory-scale wafer fabrication facility is proposed as a project in collaboration with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and SEIPI.
The facility is intended to give the Philippines the capability to produce IC design prototypes. The DTI is also expected to conduct a feasibility study to assess the facility’s viability and how its benefits could be maximized.
Lachica said SEIPI hopes to submit the project by next year. ‘Hopefully, we’ll be able to submit in 2027, and then it will be the proof of concept to show the world that we can make wafer fab.’
‘Initially, because we can’t do commercial yet. No one will believe us because we don’t have talent, we don’t have supply chain yet. That’s why that’s what we’ll prove in this wafer lab.’
Unlike a commercial facility, the laboratory operation would not require major changes to the country’s power system. ‘The lab scale can work with the existing grid,’ he said.
A commercial wafer fabrication, however, would require a substantially larger and more stable power supply, raising questions about the ability of renewable energy sources alone to provide the necessary baseload.
‘But if we’re building a commercial wafer [fabrication], I think we need to consider… It can’t handle renewable energy [RE] because our RE can’t support the base load.’
The Bases Conversion and Development Authority has said semiconductor-related industries are expected to account for a significant share of activity in the development, alongside advanced manufacturing and artificial intelligence-related investments.