NXP Breaks Ground on 500,000 sq ft Assembly and Test Expansion in Petaling Jaya

NXP Semiconductors broke ground on 12 August 2026 on a new assembly and test building at its Petaling Jaya site in Selangor, adding roughly 500,000 sq ft of production space and taking the campus to about 900,000 sq ft once complete. (Local company name: NXP Malaysia Sdn Bhd)

The Dutch-American chipmaker, listed on Nasdaq and headquartered in Eindhoven, has manufactured in Malaysia since 1972 — more than fifty years on the same stretch of Selangor industrial land.

At the groundbreaking, fourth from left onward: NXP executive vice-president and chief operations and manufacturing officer Andy Micallef; Deputy Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Sim Tze Tzin; Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo; and Netherlands Ambassador to Malaysia Jacques Werner. Photo: Zahid Izzani / The Edge Malaysia.

What is being built

The new block, referred to as the North Campus, sits less than 500m from NXP’s existing operations inside the Sungai Way Free Trade Zone. It will handle assembly and test work across NXP’s product range, and the company has described it as a highly automated smart factory built around automated material handling systems and advanced quality management technology.

Production is scheduled to begin ramping in the first quarter of 2028. Once the building is running at full capacity, NXP expects the site’s total output to more than double.

Two things the company did not disclose: the value of the investment, and how many people the expansion will employ. Neither figure appears in NXP’s release or in any of the coverage — worth noting, because expansions of this size are usually announced with a ringgit number attached.

Where it fits in NXP’s wider plan

The expansion supports what NXP calls a hybrid manufacturing strategy — keeping some capacity in-house while using foundry partners elsewhere. The added assembly and test capacity in Petaling Jaya is intended to absorb output from two joint ventures coming online abroad: VSMC in Singapore and ESMC in Dresden, Germany. Chips fabricated at those sites need packaging and testing somewhere, and Malaysia is where NXP is putting that capacity.

Andy Micallef, NXP’s executive vice-president and chief operations and manufacturing officer, said Malaysia has been part of the group’s global manufacturing footprint for decades, pointing to the country’s semiconductor ecosystem and skilled workforce.

The ceremony drew a notably senior turnout: Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo, Deputy Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Sim Tze Tzin, Selangor executive councillor for investment, trade and mobility Ng Sze Han, Netherlands Ambassador to Malaysia Jacques Werner, and NXP Malaysia managing director Goon Ben Nee. Gobind tied the investment to Malaysia’s target of lifting the digital economy to 30% of GDP by 2030.

What it means for industrial property

• The Klang Valley still wins the big back-end jobs. Most large semiconductor announcements this year have landed in Penang, Kedah and Perak. NXP putting 500,000 sq ft into Petaling Jaya is a reminder that mature Selangor industrial zones remain competitive for assembly and test — particularly where a multinational already owns land and a trained workforce next door.

• Brownfield, not greenfield — and that is the point. Expanding 500m from an existing campus inside an established free trade zone avoids new land acquisition, new utility connections and a fresh workforce build. For owners of older industrial land adjoining multinational sites, that adjacency is itself the value.

• Automation raises the building spec. Automated material handling systems need floor loading, ceiling height and power provisioning that older 1970s-era factory stock in the same zone generally cannot deliver. Expect a widening gap between what modern back-end tenants require and what legacy PJ industrial buildings can offer.

• The construction window is now. A Q1 2028 production ramp means the build runs through 2026–27 — relevant for contractors, and for anyone tracking how much industrial construction capacity is committed in the Klang Valley over the next 18 months.