US semiconductor specialist Analog Devices is investing €630m to expand its European headquarters in Limerick, Ireland. Announcing the news on May 16, the Massachusetts-headquartered group said the fresh capital will fund the construction of a new research and development (R&D) centre and manufacturing plant at its campus in the country’s south-west.

The R&D centre will support its development of next-generation signal processing innovations for applications such as digital biology, electric vehicles and robotics.

The investment is expected to create 600 new jobs and treble Analog Devices’ wafer production capacity in Europe. The project aligns with the company’s goal of doubling its global manufacturing capacity to enhance the resiliency of its global supply chains.

Landlocked Africa to get $320m fibre optic network

Telecoms group MTN and the Africa50 infrastructure platform are partnering to roll out a fibre optic cable network across 10 African countries. The pact between MTN’s subsidiary Bayobab and the development bank-backed platform was announced on May 15. 

Under the plan, which is called Project East2West, the pair will jointly invest up to $320m over the next three years to build a broadband network connecting the continent’s eastern coast to countries in the west.

The goal is to help bridge Africa’s connectivity gap by improving latency by up to 65% and reduce the bottleneck in internet traffic coming in and out of the continent. 

Fujifilm plans chip expansion in Taiwan

Japan’s Fujifilm is investing 15 billion yen ($111m) to expand its semiconductor materials production in Taiwan. Announcing the news on May 15, the conglomerate said its local subsidiary – Fujifilm Electronic Materials Taiwan – will acquire land in Hsinchu City and build a factory which will commence operations in 2026. 

The new plant will produce CMP slurries, which is a polisher for levelling semiconductor surfaces.

The fresh funds will also be used to expand Fujifilm’s chip factory under construction in Tainan City to include CMP slurry manufacturing capability. This plant is expected to start operations in 2024. 

And finally: Italy plans to use part of its €200bn in EU Covid-19 recovery funds to offer tax incentives to boost ecological renovations of industrial plants as a counter to the US Inflation Reduction Act, reports Reuters citing unnamed government sources.