A method for production of a plurality of semiconductor chips (6) in a wafer composite. A semiconductor layer sequence (2) is grown on a growth substrate (1), metallization (3) is applied to the semiconductor layer sequence (2), a metal layer (4) is electrochemically deposited onto the metallization (3), and the semiconductor layer sequence (2) is then structured and separated to form individual semiconductor chips (6). The electrochemically applied metal layer (4) is particularly suitable for use as a heat spreader, for dissipation of the heat produced by the semiconductor chips (6).