Intel Sells Minority Stake in IMS Nanofabrication

Intel will divest an approximately 20% stake in its IMS Nanofabrication GmbH business to Bain Capital in a transaction that values IMS at approximately $4.3 billion. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2023. IMS will operate as a stand-alone subsidiary and will continue to be led by CEO Elmar Platzgummer.

IMS Nanofabrication’s multi-beam mask writing technology is used for the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography processes that are used in semiconductor production. IMS debuted a commercial multi-beam mask writer in 2015, the same year Intel acquired the company and six years after it made its initial investment in IMS.

“Since the acquisition, IMS has delivered a significant return on investment to Intel while growing its workforce and production capacity by four times and delivering three additional product generations,” Intel said in a press release. The company said that as the broad adoption of EUV technology into leading-edge technologies continues, the multi-beam mask writing tools required to create advanced EUV masks are increasingly critical to the semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem. According to Intel, the sale to Bain Capital will serve as an investment, enabling IMS to capture significant market opportunity for multi-beam mask writing tools by accelerating innovation and enabling deeper cross-industry collaboration.

The divestment comes amid a week of activity for Intel in which the company announced investments to build semiconductor manufacturing facilities in Poland, Germany, and Israel, and released its 12-qubit silicon chip to the quantum research community.