Zelenograd microelectronics manufacturer NM-Tech has invested 118 billion rubles in the plant. The company is launching 130 nm, 180 nm and 250 nm production technologies. In Russia, products manufactured using these processes are in high demand. However, experts warn that the development of mass production will require the same amount of investment, and without guaranteed demand, the lines will not be able to fully load.
As CNews found out, the Zelenograd manufacturer of microelectronics NM-Tech invested 118.8 billion rubles in its own production. The funds were spent on construction and installation work, as well as the purchase of equipment for the reconstruction and technical re-equipment of the microelectronics plant in Zelenograd. This follows from the explanatory note to the company's accounting report for 2024, published in SPARK-Interfax.
In 2024, NM-Tech launched the production and processing of wafers in order to develop and deploy microelectronic manufacturing technologies with topological standards of 130 nanometers (nm), 130 nm (BCD), 180 nm and 250 nm, as well as Trench MOSFET.
The cost of setting up these technologies by the end of 2024 amounted to 14.99 billion rubles, according to the auditor's report.
Today, there are very few production sites in Russia that actually operate in the 130-250 nm range. "Among them are Micron (Zelenograd), Angstrom, and plants in Novosibirsk (NIIPP). and Tomsk (NIIET), as well as a number of enterprises within Rostec," Olga Kvashenkina, head of SNDGLOBAL Holding, a contract electronics developer, told CNews.
"However, in most cases, we are talking either about 180 nm and older, or about limited pilot production volumes," she continued. "As of 2024, a fully qualified 130 nm BCD or Trench MOSFET line in the Russian Federation was announced mainly as part of projects and roadmaps."
In August 2023, the state corporation VEB.The Russian Federation has opened a non-revolving credit line for NM-Tech with a limit of no more than 116.4 billion rubles. It is intended to "finance the purchase and commissioning of technological equipment, purchase the results of intellectual activity, and pay for the cost of starting production," the document says.
The loan must be repaid no later than the end of 2027. The amount of accrued interest for 2024 amounted to 4.1 billion rubles, for 2023 — 5.7 billion rubles. The debt on the loan body at the end of 2024 amounted to 26.97 billion rubles, and in 2023 it reached 66.5 billion rubles.
Representatives of NM-Tech had not responded to CNews' request at the time of publication.
"118 billion rubles is a significant amount by the standards of Russian microelectronics, especially considering that most of it came in the form of debt financing from VEB,— Olga Kvashenkina told CNews. "In dollar terms, this is about $1.3 billion, a figure comparable to capital investments in mature nodes factories, small by world standards, that is, high—tech technologies."
For comparison, TSMC in 2021 spent about $ 2-3 billion on one production module (fab module) in the 28-65 nm segment, and the construction of new factories at advanced nodes costs already $ 10-20 billion, she cites.
According to Kvashenkina, 118 billion rubles can be used to modernize and partially build a full-cycle production on 200 mm substrates, purchase lithographic and measuring equipment (including refurbished), including ion implantation, etching, etc. As well as provide "clean rooms", engineering infrastructure (gas, ventilation, water treatment), automation, develop and implement technical processes (PI&D, recipes, simulation, qualification), set up R&D work to bring lines to production capacity, as well as train personnel and debug quality control.
"However, it is important to understand that full—fledged mass production in large volumes will require at least a comparable or larger amount of additional investment, both in capacity expansion and in next—generation equipment," she warns.
130-250 nm nodes belong to the so-called mature and legacy processes, and they are still widely used in world practice, especially in the automotive industry, industrial automation, power electronics and in analog-digital applications, explains Kvashenkina. "However, an important point is that equipment for these standards is becoming increasingly difficult to find — it is either outdated or being bought by China, India, or Southeast Asia," she warns.
Standards of 130-250 nm remain in high demand due to their stability, maturity and predictability. According to estimates by international analysts, mature nodes account for up to 60% of global demand for chips — these are automation, telecommunications, industrial control, UPS, drive technology, sensors, analog-to-digital converters, Kvashenkina cites.
Trench MOSFETs, in particular, are used in automotive electronics, voltage converters, chargers, household appliances and energy equipment. "With China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia dominating this segment, the localization of such technologies in Russia can really have an effect in terms of import substitution, especially if the reliability and stability of the parameters are ensured," she believes.
"At the same time, modern processors, central and graphics processors, application processors, FPGAs, memory, and AI chips cannot be mastered at NM-Tech's facilities," Alexey Boyko, author of the RUSmicro Telegram channel, told CNews. "We can make microchips for military products, automotive electronics, industrial applications, space, and nuclear energy."
Kvashenkina also warns that it is not enough to master technological standards: without massive demand from consumers (primarily the automotive industry, energy, telecom operators, the Ministry of Defense, etc.), there will be no stable line loading.
In 2022, the Ministry of Industry and Trade provided NM-Tech with subsidies for the creation of an electronic component base and modules for three projects to develop technology and launch the production of SIM cards, U-chip chips and UHF tags. In 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Trade issued another subsidy to launch the production of USB tokens. The projects are to be implemented by 2028. By the end of 2024, the amount of subsidies amounted to 1.2 billion rubles, by the end of 2023 — 1.1 billion rubles, and for 2022 — 216 million rubles.
As Kommersant wrote in November 2024, NM-Tech posted a description of four new projects on its website: serial production of microchips for USB tokens with electronic signature support with a sales volume of almost 3 trillion rubles, chips for UHF tags for 4.8 billion rubles used in transport and other cards, and U-chip chips for 3.9 billion rubles, as well as secure chips for SIM cards for "identification in communication networks" and M2M chips (used in IoT) for 7.3 billion rubles. As stated on the company's website, all projects have a combined export potential of $1.5 million.
The projects will be implemented in 2028-2030.
The sole owner of NM-Tech is VEB.RF. Denis Frolov has been the CEO of the company since November 2021, according to the explanatory note.
In 2024, the company's authorized capital was increased from 152.4 billion rubles to 242.3 billion rubles. And the number of employees as of the end of 2024 was 1,075 people.
By the end of 2024, NM-Tech received a net loss of 1.2 billion rubles. At the same time, in 2023, the loss amounted to 3.3 billion rubles. The company's revenue in 2024 reached 648.7 million rubles. Most of the revenue (320.1 million rubles) came from the Port-IP R&D center, as well as the Characterization R&D center - 190.1 million rubles, Monolit Research Institute - 59.8 million rubles, as well as for the production of photomasks (21.1 million rubles), rental services (2.9 million rubles), plate thinning services (1.2 million rubles), etc.
According to Kommersant, from 2020 to 2022, NM-tech bought Angstrom-T's facilities as part of competitive production, planning to launch its own production on them.
