Onsemi has cancelled plans to invest up to 2 billion dollars in expanding silicon carbide production at its site in Roznov pod Radhostem in the Czech Republic. The company and the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade announced the decision jointly on November 6, citing changes in the global silicon carbide market and the project’s economics.
The expansion, first announced in June 2024, would have turned the existing site into an integrated production centre covering the full silicon carbide chain, from crystal growth to finished power semiconductor devices. It was billed at the time as one of the largest one-off foreign investments in the country’s history, aimed at automotive, industrial and energy customers in Europe.
Existing silicon and silicon carbide manufacturing at Roznov continues unaffected as part of onsemi’s global production network. The company said the cancellation reflected silicon carbide market conditions rather than any assessment of the Czech investment environment, and that it expects to keep investing and hiring at Roznov and at its Brno development site for automotive, industrial and AI data centre applications, without specifying amounts or timing.
The reversal tracks the wider silicon carbide downturn: prices and utilisation have fallen as Chinese capacity has grown and electric vehicle demand has grown more slowly than the capacity plans of 2024 assumed. Onsemi had already moved to cut 200 to 300 jobs at the Roznov wafer operation in June 2026, citing market adjustments.