History
Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ / TASE: TSEM) was founded in 1993 and became a public company in 1994. Shares are traded on NASDAQ (TSEM) and Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TSEM). In January 2001, an adjacent facility (Fab 2) was constructed.
In September 2008, Tower acquired Jazz Semiconductor.[11] In November 2009, the combined companies took the name TowerJazz.
In June 2011, TowerJazz acquired Micron Technology's fabrication facility in Nishiwaki City, Hyogo, Japan. The acquisition nearly doubled TowerJazz's 2010 internal manufacturing capacity and cost-effectively increased production by 60,000 wafers per month.
In April 2014, TowerJazz announced the successful transaction with Panasonic Corporation (First Section of TSE and NSE ticker: 6752) to form a newly established Japanese company, TowerJazz Panasonic Semiconductor Co. (TPSCo) for the manufacture of Panasonic and additional third-party products. TowerJazz announced cessation of its Nishiwaki facility operations in the course of rationalizing and restructuring its manufacturing and business activities in Japan.
In February 2016, TowerJazz announced the successful acquisition of an 8-inch wafer fabrication facility in San Antonio, Texas, United States from Maxim Integrated Products, Inc., the consideration, of $40 million was paid by approximately 3.3 million ordinary TowerJazz shares. This acquisition increased TowerJazz's production by 28,000 wafers per month.
On 21 August 2017, TowerJazz, and Tacoma (Nanjing) Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd announced that TowerJazz received a first payment from Tacoma (Nanjing) according to their agreement for establishing a partnership to build a wafer fab in China. TowerJazz would provide its technical knowledge and project management skills, meanwhile Tacoma (Nanjing), and a Chinese regional authorities named Nanjing Economic and Technology Development Zone, would fully support and fund the project.[12][13] On 22 June 2020, the Chinese court announced that Tacoma (Nanjing) Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd was in bankruptcy proceedings.[14]
On March 1, 2020, TowerJazz announced a new brand identity. As of March 2020, the company's official brand name is Tower Semiconductor and includes all of the company's worldwide subsidiaries.[15]
On June 24, 2021 – STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM), a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications and Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ: TSEM & TASE: TSEM), the leading foundry of high-value analog semiconductor solutions, announced an agreement by which ST welcomes Tower to its Agrate R3 300mm fab on its Agrate Brianza site in Italy.
On February 15, 2022, Intel announced an agreement to acquire Tower Semiconductor for $5.4 billion.[16][17] However, on August 16, 2023, Intel terminated the acquisition as it failed to obtain approval from Chinese regulators within the 18-month transaction deadline period and will pay a termination fee of $353 million to Tower.[18][19]
In February 2026, Tower Semiconductor and the Canadian quantum computing firm Xanadu announced a partnership to accelerate the production of photonic quantum hardware. The partnership leverages Tower’s high-volume silicon photonics manufacturing platform to develop scalable, fault-tolerant quantum computers.[20] The companies have co-engineered a unique production flow and custom material stack, including ultra-low loss silicon nitride (SiN), to transition quantum prototypes into high-volume manufacturing environments.[21]
