Element to build 55-40 nm chip fab near Innopolis, with 28 nm in its sights

Russian holding Element is preparing to build a fab in the Republic of Tatarstan, near the tech city of Innopolis, to produce chips on a 55-40 nm process, with plans to later move to a finer 28 nm node. The site has already been selected, and the holding is getting the technology to launch production from partners in China, the so-called "technology donors."

Where the fab will be built and what it will produce

The new fab will sit next to Innopolis, a purpose-built tech city in Tatarstan that has been developing since 2012 as a hub for the region's IT and electronics industries. Proximity to Innopolis gives the project access to talent from local universities and IT companies, as well as to the existing technopark infrastructure.

Production will start at 55-40 nm. These are so-called "mature" nodes: by global standards they stopped being cutting-edge long ago, but they remain the workhorse for a huge range of practical applications, from automotive electronics and industrial controllers to chips for bank cards and SIM cards. A significant share of the global semiconductor market has run on these nodes for decades, and they are the easiest to localize without the most expensive lithography equipment.

Why 28 nm is an important milestone

The stated goal of moving to 28 nm is far more ambitious. This is no longer a "mature" process but a fairly modern one by mass-market standards. Chips at this level go into networking equipment, next-generation automotive electronics, the industrial internet of things, and many other devices that don't need leading-edge 3-5 nm nodes but do require noticeably more compute density than 40 nm and above can deliver.

For Russian microelectronics, this is a meaningful step. Since 2022, the country has been cut off from advanced lithography equipment made by Western vendors, above all Dutch company ASML, whose machines remain the global standard for manufacturing modern chips. Under these conditions, expanding the range of process nodes available domestically depends directly on partners willing to share equipment and know-how while bypassing sanctions restrictions. Hence the reference to "technology donors" from China.

• The fab will be located near Innopolis, a tech city in Tatarstan that has been developing since 2012
• Production will start at 55-40 nm, with a planned move to 28 nm
• The holding is getting technology and equipment for the project from partners in China
• Element is Russia's largest microelectronics holding, a joint venture between state corporation Rostec and AFK Sistema

How this compares with the industry's current level

Today, most of Russia's microelectronics capacity is concentrated at the Mikron plant in Zelenograd, where volume production runs on much coarser nodes of 90 nm and above. If Element's Tatarstan project is delivered as announced, it will be a notable upgrade for the industry: jumping straight to 40 nm and then to 28 nm would narrow the gap between what Russia can produce domestically and what civilian and industrial electronics actually need.

Element itself was created in 2019 as a joint venture between Rostec and AFK Sistema. It brought together the assets of dozens of specialized companies, from chip designers to makers of electronic components for banking, transportation, and telecommunications. The new fab near Innopolis is expected to become one of the holding's key production sites alongside its existing facilities.

What it means

The new fab is part of a broader bet by Russian industry on technological sovereignty in microelectronics: without its own production of even basic chips, the country remains dependent on imports in critical sectors, from bank cards to automotive and industrial electronics. Reaching even 28 nm on the back of Chinese technology won't bring Russia close to the leading edge of the semiconductor race, where Taiwan and South Korea work on nodes several times finer. But it could cover a significant share of domestic demand for mid-range chips without having to worry about sanctions.