Globalfoundries has announced long term plans to expand semiconductor manufacturing operations with a series of new 300mm plants.

The outfit will construct a new wafer plant in Dresden's Fab 1 to increase 45, 40 and 28nm capacity. The new facility should expand output by 80,000 wafers a month. It will also expand the clean room shell currently under construction at Fab 8 in New York. It will increase 28, 22 and 20nm capacity and ramp up monthly output by 60,000 wafers.

Globalfoundries will apparently focus on Dresden over the next two years, but as its New York fab comes online, the focus will gradually shift to newer, sub-28nm manufacturing processes.

However, the start date of the Dresden project is still unclear, as Globalfoundries is waiting for the approval of an aid package from Germany and the European Commission. Good thing they're not building it in Greece.