A European investor plans to invest between 200 and 250 million euros in the former BelGaN factory in Oudenaarde. The bankruptcy trustees have reached an agreement to acquire the site for 20.35 million euros. The factory will once again start producing chips, but not with the gallium nitride technology, but with photonic chips. If everything goes according to plan, the factory will reopen in September and generate work for up to 500 people.
The BelGaN bankruptcy trustees have realized an important breakthrough in their search for a new future for the factory in Oudenaarde. An unnamed European investor has signed an agreement to acquire the business premises on Westerring but not the BelGaN machinery.
Bankruptcy trustee Ali Heerman indicates that negotiations about the investment conditions are still ongoing. “But it is clear that it concerns chip production”, he confirms. The new owner has already paid an advance of two million euros to prove his serious intentions.
Photonic chips instead of gallium nitride
According to the trustees, there is a clear business plan for producing photonic chips, a technology different from the gallium nitride chips BelGaN previously focused on. Previous reports showed that BelGaN had great difficulty making this technology profitable, ultimately leading to bankruptcy.
The new photonic technology would mainly have applications in AI, data centers and the automotive industry. This aligns with the growing demand for specialized chips for these sectors. The facility’s cleanrooms are suitable for the production process of this new generation of chips.
Important development for European chip industry
The news comes at a crucial moment for the European chip industry. With the European Chips Act, an investment package of 43 billion euros from public and private funds, Europe is trying to compete with the US and Asia. Until recently, BelGaN was the only industrial chip manufacturer in Belgium, which means that the relaunch can play an important role in the European chip strategy.
Last year, BelGaN was declared definitively bankrupt after none of the five interested parties made a sufficiently high bid.
From 440 to 500 employees
When BelGaN closed its doors last summer, 440 employees were left without a job. Production will start with a new workforce, although the new owner may want to approach former employees who found work elsewhere, provided they are interested in returning. The business plan shows a growth path to 500 jobs within two to five years. “That is even more than BelGaN employed at the time,” says curator Heerman.
If everything goes according to plan, the company can start up in September. Before then, several things still need to be arranged. The entire transaction is expected to be finalized this summer.
The restart of the Oudenaarde factory also means the continued existence of chip production in Belgium. Various politicians and entrepreneurs, including the Belgian industrialist Guido Dumarey, had already indicated that keeping local chip production is strategically important.