The story
Founded by Roland Duchâtelet.1
As a result of the German reunification in the 1990s, came to the dismantling of the old electronics conglomerate in East Germany named Kombinat Mikroelektronik Erfurt. The conglomerate was privatized in 1992 and divided into X-FAB Gesellschaft zur Fertigung von Wafern mbH (simply known as X-Fab) and the Thesys Gesellschaft für Mikroelektronik mbH (simply known as Thesys). X-Fab would be majority owned by the company Melexis while Thesys would be majority owned by the German state of Thuringia.
In 1999, X-Fab acquired a foundry from Texas Instruments in Lubbock, Texas, USA. In the same year, X-Fab (at this time owned by Belgian holding company named Elex N.V) acquired Thesys and disposed of its non-foundry business.
In 2002, X-Fab acquired Zarlink wafer plant in Plymouth, United Kingdom.
In 2006, X-Fab merged with 1st Silicon, a semiconductor fabrication plant located in Sarawak, Malaysia. The Sarawak government acquired 35% of X-Fab shares in the merger.
In 2007, X-Fab acquired the foundry business from ZMD, thus enabling ZMD to focus on its core business of design and developing analog mixed signal devices.
In December 2009, X-Fab sold its United Kingdom wafer plant to Plus Semi, the old Plessey Semiconductors plant in Swindon, England.
In February 2011, the company added Rudi De Winter as co-CEO. He later assumed the role of CEO in 2014.
In 2012, the X-Fab group acquired MEMS foundry Itzehoe GmbH where the latter was a spin-off from Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology (ISIT). Nevertheless, X-Fab continues its cooperation with ISIT in the chip business. X-Fab also expanded its MEMS manufacturing capabilities. The foundry in Itzehoe became fully owned by X-Fab in 2015.
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In 2015, PowerAmerica (a research institute under Manufacturing USA network) collaborated with X-Fab production facility in Lubbock, Texas to produce 150-mm Silicon carbide wafers for power electronics applications.
In 2016, the X-FAB group acquired the assets of Altis Semiconductor, making the fab in France its sixth manufacturing site.
In July 2020, X-FAB temporarily halted IT systems and production lines to prevent damage following a Maze ransomware attack.
On May 27, 2026, X-FAB's stock experienced significant volatility following a viral post on the social network X by an influential semiconductor-focused account, presenting the company as an investment opportunity related to photonics, artificial intelligence, and power semiconductors. The stock surged as much as 76% during the trading session before partially paring its gains, without any major official announcement from the company.
From Wikipedia’s article on X-Fab, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4