GlobalFoundries, Biden Admin Announces $1.5 Bn Funding For CHIPS & Science Act

GlobalFoundries, Biden Admin Announces $1.5 Bn Funding For CHIPS & Science Act

The US Department of Commerce recently announced $1.5 billion in planned direct funding for GlobalFoundries (GF) as part of the US CHIPS and Science Act.

GF claims to expand and create new manufacturing capacity through this investment. It estimates to expand it capabilities and securely produce more essential chips for automotive, IoT, aerospace, defense, and other vital markets. New York-headquartered GF, celebrating its 15th year of operations, claims to be the only US-based pure-play foundry with a global manufacturing footprint. It included facilities in the US, Europe, and Singapore. GF claims to be the first semiconductor pure-play foundry to receive a major award (over $1.5 billion) from the CHIPS and Science Act, designed to strengthen American semiconductor manufacturing, supply chains, and national security.

The proposed funding plans to support three GF projects:

• Expansion of GF’s existing Malta, New York (NY), fab by adding critical technologies already in production in GF’s Singapore and Germany facilities geared towards enabling the US auto industry. As vehicles transition from mechanical to electronic systems, the number of semiconductor chips in each car or truck continues to soar. This expansion is key to ensuring supply chain resilience for the growing demand and to delivering for GF’s automotive customers including General Motors. This is estimated to continue to diversify GF’s flagship Malta fab into new technologies and end markets.
• Construction of a new state-of-the-art fab on the Malta campus to meet expected customer demand for US-made essential chips across a broad range of markets and applications including automotive, aerospace, defense, and AI. The new fab, which has already been granted some necessary permitting, will leverage the site’s existing infrastructure and ecosystem, enabling a fast and efficient path from construction to production. The semiconductor market is expected to double over the next decade, and GF’s new fab will be uniquely positioned to capture the feature-rich mature, essential chip segment which is expected to continue to represent more than 60% of the semiconductor market. Construction of this new fab combined with the expansion of GF’s existing site is expected to triple the existing capacity of the Malta campus over the next 10+ years. These two projects are expected to increase wafer production to 1 million per year once all phases are complete.
• Modernisation of GF’s longest continuously operated fab and the nation’s first and largest Trusted 200mm facility in Essex Junction, Vermont. The project will upgrade existing facilities, expand capacity as well as create the first US facility capable of high-volume manufacturing of next-generation gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors for use in electric vehicles, power grids, data centers, 5G and 6G smartphones and other critical technologies.

Based on market requirements and demand, GF plans to invest more than $12 billion over the next 10 plus years across its two US sites through public-private partnerships with support from the federal and state governments as well as from its ecosystem partners, including key strategic customers.

In support of the two Malta, New York projects, Governor Hochul announced $575 million in planned direct funding for New York State Green CHIPS. Also announced was $15 million in planned funding for NYS Workforce Development activities for GlobalFoundries as well as $30 million in planned funding for NYS Infrastructure upgrades and Energy incentives provided by the New York Power Authority (NYPA). Combined, these investments are expected to create over 1,500 manufacturing jobs and about 9,000 construction jobs over the life of these projects.