GlobalFoundries: AMD's Spun-Off Fabs, the 7nm Exit and AI Photonics Deals

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GlobalFoundries, or GF, is the world's third-largest semiconductor foundry by revenue and the only major one with large plants in the United States, the European Union and Singapore. It began in 2008, when AMD decided to go fabless and spin off its manufacturing. Mubadala, the United Arab Emirates sovereign wealth fund, paid $700 million for a majority stake and absorbed $1.2 billion of AMD debt, and the company took its name in March 2009. Mubadala still held 82 percent after the 2021 IPO. GF bought Singapore's Chartered Semiconductor, and in 2014 and 2015 took over IBM's microelectronics business, with IBM paying GF $1.5 billion, plus plants in East Fishkill, New York, and Essex Junction, Vermont, and a 10-year deal to supply IBM server chips.

In 2018 GF canceled 7-nanometer development rather than outfit Fab 8 in New York with costly EUV lithography machines. It moved to specialty processes such as FD-SOI for cars, sensors and connected devices. A 2019 patent fight with TSMC, 16 patents claimed against 25 in the countersuit, ended within months in a cross-license deal. GF holds Trusted Foundry Category 1A status with the Pentagon and won a 10-year, $3.1 billion Defense Department contract in 2023, the same year General Motors signed an exclusive supply deal with its New York fab. In early 2024 it was the first major CHIPS Act recipient, with $1.5 billion planned, and in November 2024 it paid a $500,000 Commerce Department fine for about $17 million in shipments to an SMIC-affiliated entity.

• GF licensed Samsung technology to move from 14 to 12 nanometers before dropping out of the leading-edge race.
• Project Sprint, announced in 2025, is a 1.1 billion euro expansion in Dresden backed by the European Chips Act.
• Its 2025 and 2026 deals included Tagore Technology for gallium nitride, MIPS for RISC-V, and Synopsys' ARC processor business.
• It bought Advanced Micro Foundry in Singapore and InfiniLink to build silicon photonics and optical links between AI chips.
• In May 2026 GF received a $375 million U.S. grant to build a secure domestic quantum foundry.