A Michigan silicon chip manufacturing plant once touted as a “game changer” by former President Joe Biden is closing.
Officials with South Korean SK Siltron announced Thursday that the company’s Bay County facility will be winding down operations over the next 60 days. The facility employees 140 people.
Back in 2022, then-President Joe Biden visited the facility. He said production at the plant meant that U.S. would not have to rely on Chinese produced silicon chips in the future.
“The supply chain for those chips would be here in America, in Michigan," said Biden in 2022, "It’s a game changer."
Well, the game has changed again. And not in Michigan’ favor.
SK Siltron spokesman Joe Guy Collier said the company originally expanded manufacturing in the U.S. to meet what was then growing customer demand for a specialized product used in electric vehicles.
“Significant changes in the EV market have created sustained challenges for the silicon carbide wafer business,” said Collier.
In October 2024, SK Siltron closed a deal to get a $544 million loan financed through the U.S. Department of Energy to expand American manufacturing of high-quality silicon carbide wafers for EV power electronics.
The company paid off the loan last week.
