GlobalFoundries Inc. (GF) is a multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company incorporated in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in Malta, New York. Created by the divestiture of the manufacturing arm of AMD, the company was privately owned by Mubadala Investment Company, the sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates, until an initial public offering (IPO) in October 2021.
The company manufactures integrated circuits on wafers designed for markets such as smart mobile devices, automotive, aerospace and defense, consumer internet of things (IoT) and for data centers and communications infrastructure.
As of 2023, GlobalFoundries is the third-largest semiconductor foundry by revenue. It is the only one with operations in Singapore, the European Union, and the United States: one 200 mm and one 300 mm wafer fabrication plant in Singapore; one 300 mm plant in Dresden, Germany; one 200 mm plant in Burlington, Vermont (where it is the largest private employer) and one 300 mm plant in the State of New York: in Malta.
GlobalFoundries is a "Trusted Foundry" for the U.S. federal government and has similar designations in Singapore and Germany, including certified international Common Criteria standard (ISO 15408, CC Version 3.1).
On October 28, 2021, the company sold shares in an IPO on the Nasdaq stock exchange at US$47 each, at the higher end of its targeted price range, and raised about US$2.6 billion.
Overview
On October 7, 2008, AMD announced it planned to go fabless and spin off their semiconductor manufacturing business into a new company temporarily called The Foundry Company. Mubadala announced their subsidiary Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) agreed to pay $700 million to increase their stake in AMD's semiconductor manufacturing business to 55.6% (up from 8.1%). Mubadala will invest $314 million for 58 million new shares, increasing their stake in AMD to 19.3%. $1.2 billion of AMD's debt will be transferred to The Foundry Company. On 8 December 2008, amendments were announced. AMD will own approximately 34.2% and ATIC will own approximately 65.8% of The Foundry Company.
On March 4, 2009, GlobalFoundries was officially announced. On September 7, 2009, ATIC announced it would acquire Chartered Semiconductor, based in Singapore, for S$2.5 billion (US$1.8 billion) and integrate Chartered Semiconductor into GlobalFoundries. On January 13, 2010, GlobalFoundries announced it had finalized the integration of Chartered Semiconductor.
On March 4, 2012, AMD announced they divested their final 14% stake in the company, which concluded AMD's multi-year plan to divest its manufacturing arm.
On October 20, 2014, IBM announced the sale of its microelectronics business to GlobalFoundries.
As of 2015, the firm owned ten fabrication plants. Fab 1 is in Dresden, Germany. Fabs 2 through 7 are in Singapore. Fabs 8 through 10 are in the northeast United States. These sites are supported by a global network of R&D, design enablement, and customer support in Singapore, China, Taiwan, Japan, India, the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom. In February 2017, the company announced a new 300 Fab [Fab 11] in China for growing semiconductor market in China.
In 2016, GlobalFoundries licensed the 14 nm 14LPP FinFET process from Samsung Electronics. In 2018, GlobalFoundries developed the 12 nm 12LP node based on Samsung's 14nm 14LPP process.
On August 27, 2018, GlobalFoundries announced it had cancelled their 7LP process due to a strategy shift to focus on specialized processes instead of leading edge performance.
On January 29, 2019, AMD announced an amended wafer supply agreement with GlobalFoundries. AMD now has full flexibility for wafer purchases from any foundry at 7 nm or beyond. AMD and GlobalFoundries agreed to commitments and pricing at 12 nm for 2019 through 2021.