Styrian tech company

Customer jumps ship: 500 jobs at ams-Osram are in jeopardy

(Bild: Osram)

After losing its only customer for MicroLEDs, the Styrian chip and sensor manufacturer ams-Osram is almost completely scaling back the development of this innovative technology. This will cost the company almost 700 million euros and more than 500 employees could lose their jobs.

It is a major loss for the Styrian chip and sensor manufacturer ams-Osram, based in Premstätten near Graz. The company had invested a lot of money in the development of MicroLEDs, even setting up its own factory in Malaysia. But now the only customer they had for it has backed out. According to rumors, it is Apple, but ams-Osram did not want to confirm this.

Hope for the automotive industry, separation from billion-dollar plant in Malaysia
The exit from MicroLED technology will cost the company a total of 700 million euros, ams-Osram explained in a press release on Friday. In addition, more than 500 employees at the sites in Regensburg (Germany) and Kulim (Malaysia) will be affected. However, some of them could be deployed on projects for the use of pixel-sized LEDs in the automotive industry, where ams-Osram still sees the greatest opportunities.

ams-Osram board member Aldo Kamper

(Bild: Osram, Krone KREATIV)

The Management Board around Aldo Kamper wants to part with the factory that ams-Osram built for one billion dollars (933 million euros) in Kulim, Malaysia, specifically for the hoped-for order.