A Welsh semiconductor manufacturer that has operated in Greensboro for more than a decade announced a $305 million investment that will add 109 jobs to its existing operations.

IQE’s expansion at its manufacturing facility will take place over several years.
The company currently has 72 employees in Greensboro. It manufactures epi wafers using molecular beam epitaxy for the defense and aerospace industries. This investment would add a complementary epitaxy called metal-organic chemical vapor deposition and would provide a new clean technology for semiconductor chip production to help serve the electric vehicle market. Some of its epi wafers are used in Apple iPhones for face recognition.

“Greensboro has proven to be a strategic location for IQE and has provided access to exceptional talent,” says Jutta Meier, interim CEO of IQE. “We look forward to continuing our partnership with the city as we progress further with our application for government funding via the CHIPS Act, which along with funding commitments from the state, will provide us with the capital to invest and expand our local footprint.”

Meier got the company’s top job when former CEO Americo Lemos left the British company last week. Meier had been finance chief. She has two decades of experience in the semiconductor sector and was most recently senior finance director at Intel’s Foundry Services business.

North Carolina has more than 110 companies exporting $1.2 billion of semiconductors and microelectronics around the world, says N.C. Commerce Secretary Machelle Baker Sanders in a release.

Salaries will vary by position, but the average annual wage will be $64,908, which exceeds the Guilford County average of $58,843. These new jobs could potentially create an annual payroll impact of more than $7 million for the region.

Local incentives for the project are expected to be decided this week. The city of Greensboro will be asked at its meeting tonight (Monday, Nov. 4) to approve $2,410,711 in incentives. On Thursday, Nov. 7, Guilford County commissioners will be asked to approve incentives of $2,618,623.

A performance-based grant of $275,000 from the One North Carolina Fund has already been approved pending IQE meeting job creation and capital investment targets.

IQE is listed on the London Stock Exchange.