STMicroelectronics plans robots, retraining to avoid closures

SOPOT, Poland: STMicroelectronics unveiled plans on Thursday to retrain workers and deploy robots in its older chip manufacturing plants, avoiding closures as the European semiconductor giant navigates industry challenges.

At a semiconductor conference in Sopot, Poland, ‌hosted by industry ⁠group SEMI, ⁠Thomas Morgenstern, STMicro’s head of manufacturing, showed a video of a robot placing a silicon wafer carrier into a machine.

“This is the first one we have,” he said. “In the next couple of years, we are talking about numbers beyond one hundred humanoids doing jobs in our facilities.”