Asia Tech Wire (July 2) -- Singapore-based startup Silicon Box plans to build a new chip manufacturing plant in Italy with a total investment of up to 3.2 billion euros ($3.42 billion).

This is the latest large investment in Europe in the context of Brussels seeking to improve self-sufficiency in chip production.

Silicon Box said the new packaging and testing facility will produce semiconductors for applications in artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, electric vehicles and mobile devices, which are key growth areas for the semiconductor industry.

Silicon Box's facility will add an estimated 1,600 jobs directly, plus thousands of construction and supply chain jobs.

The plant is due to break ground in the middle of next year and go into production in 2028.

Established in 2021, Silicon Box founders include U.S. chipmaker Marvell founding couple Weili Dai and Sehat Sutardja, as well as Korean chip packaging veteran Byung-Joon Han.