GlobalFoundries (GF for short, GF in Chinese) has been actively cutting investment and selling fabs for the past two years, but today they announced that they have acquired 66 acres of land near New York State, USA Increased production capacity.
GF was born out of AMD's wafer manufacturing department. Later, AMD accepted the UAE Abu Dhabi investment fund and sold the wafer manufacturing department to establish GF. At present, AMD shares have all been withdrawn. GF is 100% UAE company, but GF The production base is also mainly in the United States, especially the Fab8 fab in New York State.
The Fab8 factory is GF's 14nm and 12nm factories. After exiting the 7nm process competition, this is GF's most advanced fab. OEM cores for AMD are mainly IO cores in 7nm Ruilong and Xiaolong. The previous Polaris core GPU, Ruilong 1st generation and Ruilong 2nd generation processors.
GF hasn’t made any money since leaving from AMD. They have been losing money. In recent years, they have begun to reduce their business. Many of their fabs have been sold at low prices. It is common sense that GF is unlikely to invest heavily. .
However, this year the United States imposed stricter sanctions on Huawei and gave GF an opportunity. After the United States announced a new ban in mid-May, GF immediately announced the implementation of export controls and will also implement the United States’ International Arms Trade Regulations (ITAR) , "Export Management Regulations" (EAR), it will also become the most advanced fab in the United States that complies with ITAR regulations.
GF stated that this move will strengthen cooperation with the US Department of Defense and the US defense industry, further consolidate US national security, better serve the US government, and the technologies it needs in the coming decades.
The above measures will take effect later this year to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of US defense-related applications, equipment, and parts produced at the Fab 8 plant.
GF has also recently reached a cooperation with Skywater. Some of the latter products are chips provided to the US government and the military. Obviously, GF has now put the focus back on the road of "domestic chips" in the United States. Get more opportunities in the process, after all, American fabs except Intel are them.
It should be pointed out that GF's previous commitment to invest in a US$10 billion fab in Chengdu has already gone, and the last 74 employees have also been discharged after signing the separation agreement.
In the current situation, it is no longer possible for GF to invest in the construction of a fab in China.