SkyWater Technology appoints John Sakamoto as President and COO

Last week, US semiconductor manufacturer SkyWater Technology announced the appointment of John Sakamoto as its new President and Chief Operating Officer. At SkyWater, John will report directly to CEO Thomas Sonderman.

“During the business transformation initiative currently underway, which SkyWater launched with third-party consultants earlier this year, the company determined that an operational leader with Sakamoto’s skills and experience would help accelerate the transformation process aimed at achieving greater levels of scale, revenue, and profitability,” read a press release accompanying the announcement.

John Sakamoto previously worked at Altera and Intel

SkyWater’s new COO is no stranger to the semiconductor industry, having previously worked at Marvell Technology, Altera and Intel (where he led a global team of more than 700 staff). John was with Altera for almost 22 years, up until 2015 when Intel acquired it for USD $16.7 billion in cash, and joined Intel following that acquisition.

“Thrilled to be joining SkyWater! The US supply chain is a strategic imperative, and there’s no better time to be a part of a team dedicated to driving this mission forward” said John in his announcement post on LinkedIn.

SkyWater Technology was launched in 2017 as the result of private equity investor Oxbow Industries acquiring Cypress Foundry. Based in Bloomington, Minnesota, the company has since launched a second fabrication facility in Osceola, Florida, and announced it was investing $1.8 billion into a semiconductor fabrication facility West Lafayette, Indiana. This will reportedly generate 750 jobs in five years.

The announcement follows strong quarterly earnings reported for Q2, with revenue growing to a record $69.8 million, a 47% year-over-year increase. The semiconductor market has been a strong performer throughout 2023, as we reported before when we analysed why Nvidia earnings soared in Q2.

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