A semiconductor manufacturer announced Monday it will close its Tempe, Arizona factory in September of next year. The announcement came less than one year after the Biden-Harris administration announced $164 million in incentives to convince the company to expand its facilities in other states.
Microchip Technology Inc. announced in a Monday quarterly call that the company would shut down its semiconductor manufacturing facility in Tempe, which will reportedly impact about 500 employees, as a cost-saving measure as executives instead look to the company’s facilities in Colorado and Oregon.
According to Bloomberg, Microchip interim chief executive officer Steve Sanghi cited high semiconductor inventory, as well as identical product lines being created in Colorado and Oregon, when announcing the plan to close the factory, stating, “inventory levels are high and the company has ample capacity in place and the ability to expand capacity in the other facilities in the future.”
The company will reportedly begin seeing financial benefits from closing its Tempe factory in June 2026, though it expected the winding-down process at the facility would help Microchip “moderate our inventory levels beginning in the March 2025 quarter.”
