Bravo
If ARM was an arm, BRN would be its biceps💪!
Afternoon Chippers ,
GlobalFoundries spending a few bob .
For those that are new to Brainchip......GlobalFoundries fabricated our last Physical Chip , AKD1500 .
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/ GlobalFoundries Announces $16B U.S. Investment to Reshore Essential Chip Manufacturing and Accelerate AI Growth
GlobalFoundries Announces $16B U.S. Investment to Reshore Essential Chip Manufacturing and Accelerate AI Growth
June 4, 2025
Backed by leading tech giants, the investment reinforces domestic semiconductor production and U.S.-based innovation in AI-enabling and power efficient technologies
MALTA, N.Y., June 4, 2025 – GlobalFoundries (Nasdaq: GFS) (GF), working with the Trump Administration and with support from leading technology companies aiming to onshore critical components of their supply chain, today announced plans to invest $16 billion to expand its semiconductor manufacturing and advanced packaging capabilities across its facilities in New York and Vermont. GF’s investment is a strategic response to the explosive growth in artificial intelligence, which is accelerating demand for next-generation semiconductors designed for power efficiency and high-bandwidth performance across datacenters, communications infrastructure and AI-enabled devices.
GF is collaborating with major technology companies such as Apple, SpaceX, AMD, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., NXP and GM, that are committed to reshoring semiconductor production to the U.S. and diversifying their global supply chains. These companies partner with GF to support their production of U.S.-made chips, underscoring GF’s role as a trusted supplier of essential semiconductors and a key enabler of supply chain security.
“At GlobalFoundries, we are proud to partner with pioneering technology leaders to manufacture their chips in the United States—advancing innovation while strengthening economic and supply chain resiliency,” said Tim Breen, CEO of GlobalFoundries. “The AI revolution is driving strong, durable demand for GF’s technologies that enable tomorrow’s datacenters – including GF’s leading silicon photonics, as well as GaN for power applications. Meanwhile at the edge, GF’s proprietary FDX technology is uniquely positioned to support AI functionality with low power consumption. With all these technologies and more manufactured right here in the U.S., GF is proud to play its part in accelerating America’s semiconductor leadership.”
“GlobalFoundries investment is a great example of the return of United States manufacturing for critical semiconductors,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick. “President Trump has made it a fundamental objective to bring semiconductor manufacturing home to America. Our partnership with GlobalFoundries will secure U.S. semiconductor foundry capacity and technology capabilities for future generations.”
The rapid rise of AI in both the cloud and at the edge is driving the adoption of new technology platforms and 3D heterogeneous integration technologies. These advanced solutions are essential to meet the exponentially growing requirements for power efficiency, bandwidth density and performance. GF is uniquely positioned to lead in this space, with its 22FDX® and silicon photonics capabilities in production in New York and advanced development of differentiated GaN-based power solutions in Vermont.
GF’s investment builds upon the company’s existing U.S. expansion plans, including more than $13 billion to expand and modernize its New York and Vermont facilities and funding for its recently launched New York Advanced Packaging and Photonics Center—the first U.S.-based facility of its kind dedicated to silicon photonics packaging. GF is committing an additional $3 billion, which includes advanced research and development initiatives focused on packaging innovation, silicon photonics and next-generation GaN technologies. In aggregate, these investments represent a $16 billion plan to strengthen U.S. semiconductor leadership and accelerate innovation in AI, aerospace, automotive and high-performance communications.
“Today’s announcement is a direct result of President Trump’s leadership and his vision to bring back high-paying manufacturing jobs and reestablish secure, domestic supply chains for critical technologies,” said Dr. Thomas Caulfield, Executive Chairman of GlobalFoundries. “We look forward to continuing to work with the U.S. government to help create the conditions for industry and government to work together and drive meaningful, long-term impact.”
“GlobalFoundries has supplied semiconductors for Apple products since 2010 and we’re excited to see them expand right here in the United States. These chips are an essential part of Apple products like iPhone, and they’re a powerful example of American manufacturing leadership.”
Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO
“Advanced semiconductors are critical to the advanced satellite capabilities which SpaceX has been pioneering for over two decades. We are excited by the expansion of GlobalFoundries’ manufacturing base right here in the U.S., which is core to Starlink’s growth and our commitment to manufacturing in the U.S., as well as our mission to deliver high-speed internet access to millions of people around the world.”
Gwynne Shotwell, president and COO at SpaceX
“As a valued technology partner, we’re pleased to see GlobalFoundries deepen its commitment to U.S. manufacturing. These efforts are critical to building a secure and resilient semiconductor supply chain in the U.S. to support the next wave of innovation in our industry.”
Dr. Lisa Su, AMD Chair and CEO
“As a strategic supplier of Qualcomm, GlobalFoundries shares our vision for strengthening U.S. chip production capacity. This commitment from GlobalFoundries will help secure a resilient semiconductor supply chain to support the next wave of U.S. technology innovation, especially in areas vital to enabling power efficient computing, connectivity, and edge intelligence.”
Cristiano Amon, president and CEO of Qualcomm Incorporated
“Deepening our partnership with GlobalFoundries aligns with NXP’s hybrid manufacturing strategy, where we work with leading foundry partners to better serve our customers’ strategic technology, capacity and resilience needs. This collaboration allows us to scale efficiently, expand production in the U.S. and continue delivering for our customers. It’s a strong step forward in building a resilient, high-performing semiconductor supply chain in the United States.”
Kurt Sievers, chief executive officer of NXP Semiconductors
“Semiconductors are critical to the future of vehicles, and their importance will only grow. GlobalFoundries’ investment supports our work to secure a reliable, U.S.-based chip supply—essential for delivering the safety, infotainment and features our customers expect.”
Mark Reuss, president of General Motors
About GF
GlobalFoundries (GF) is a leading manufacturer of essential semiconductors the world relies on to live, work and connect. We innovate and partner with customers to deliver more power-efficient, high-performance products for automotive, smart mobile devices, internet of things, communications infrastructure and other high-growth markets. With our global manufacturing footprint spanning the U.S., Europe, and Asia, GF is a trusted and reliable source for customers around the world. Every day, our talented global team delivers results with an unyielding focus on security, longevity and sustainability. For more information, visit www.gf.com.
©GlobalFoundries Inc., GF, GlobalFoundries, the GF logos and other GF marks are trademarks of GlobalFoundries Inc. or its subsidiaries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Forward-looking Information
This press release includes “forward-looking statements” that reflect our current expectations and views of future events. These forward-looking statements are made under the “safe harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and include but are not limited to, statements regarding our financial outlook, future guidance, product development, business strategy and plans, and market trends, opportunities and positioning. These statements are based on current expectations, assumptions, estimates, forecasts, projections and limited information available at the time they are made. Words such as “expect,” “anticipate,” “should,” “believe,” “hope,” “target,” “project,” “goals,” “estimate,” “potential,” “predict,” “may,” “will,” “might,” “could,” “intend,” “shall,” “outlook,” “plan,” “aim,” and variations of these terms or the negative of these terms and similar expressions are intended to identify these forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements are subject to a broad variety of risks and uncertainties, both known and unknown. Any inaccuracy in our assumptions and estimates could affect the realization of the expectations or forecasts in these forward-looking statements. For example, our business could be impacted by geopolitical conditions such as the ongoing political and trade tensions with China; the market for our products may develop or recover more slowly than expected or than it has in the past; our operating results may fluctuate more than expected; there may be significant fluctuations in our results of operations and cash flows related to our revenue recognition or otherwise; a network or data security incident that allows unauthorized access to our network or data or our customers’ data could result in a system disruption, loss of data or damage our reputation; we could experience interruptions or performance problems associated with our technology, including a service outage; global economic conditions could deteriorate; and our expected results and planned expansions and operations may not proceed as planned if funding we expect to receive is delayed or withheld for any reason. It is not possible for us to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements we may make. Moreover, we operate in a competitive and rapidly changing market, and new risks may emerge from time to time. These statements are based on our historical performance and on our current plans, estimates and projections in light of information currently available to us, and therefore you should not place undue reliance on them.
Although we believe that the expectations reflected in our statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee that the future results, levels of activity, performance or events and circumstances described in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur. Moreover, neither we, nor any other person, assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of these statements. Except to the extent required by federal securities laws, we undertake no obligation to update any information or any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, subsequent events or any other circumstances after the date hereof, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Investors are urged to review in detail the risks and uncertainties discussed in our 2024 Annual Report on Form 20-F, current reports on Form 6-K and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Media Contact:
Erica McGill
erica.mcgill@gf.com
Regards,
Esq.
Speaking of GlobalFoundries...
"AI at the edge is powering many newer features". Great!
But the central compute architecture is not expected to be broadly adopted until 2030. Not so great!
Inside A Car’s Digital Brain: MCUs, the Engine Powering SDV Innovation
May 22, 2025Wael Fakhreldin, End-Market Director of Automotive Processing at GlobalFoundries
Software-defined vehicles (SDVs) have taken center stage as part of the automotive industry’s digital revolution. Think of SDVs as smartphones on wheels. And at the center of it all – but not so visible – are microcontroller units (MCUs) — the “digital brains” of today’s cars. These tiny but powerful chips, ranging from the size of a fingernail to a grain of rice, control everything from essential systems like brakes, to ambient lighting.
So, to break it all down, we turned to Wael Fakhreldin, GF’s Director of Automotive Processing, about the trends shaping the next generation of vehicle architectures, the evolving demands on MCUs, and how GlobalFoundries is co-innovating with its automotive customers to push the boundaries of what’s possible.
Let’s start big picture — what are some of the biggest automotive challenges you’re seeing that are pushing the need for new architecture?
Consumers want their in-vehicle experience to be as seamless as using the smartphone in their hands, and automakers are on a mission to make driving as safe as possible. But, what does that mean? In traditional vehicle architectures, each new feature would require its own hardware, creating significant complexities and costs for OEMs to integrate multiple different control units. The push for smarter and more connected vehicles demands new architecture, empowering drivers to access new features instantly, without the need for costly hardware upgrades.
Now, these pressures have spurred the acceleration toward SDVs that can rapidly deliver new features to keep pace with consumer expectations and market demand for new functionalities, without requiring physical updates. This approach relies on versatile, scalable high-performance compute platforms, enabling seamless over-the-air updates. They are key to overcoming these challenges.
What do you see as the most promising vehicle architectures today, and how do you think they’ll evolve over the next few years?
SDV zonal architecture is raising the standard for efficiency and performance, and it’s doing so in multiple ways. For instance, it is: 1) consolidating control & processing features based on their physical location in the vehicle, rather than their function and 2) significantly reducing wiring complexity and overall vehicle harness weight. In recent years, cross-domain zonal architectures have gained traction because they align well with the physical layout of modern vehicles. Each zonal controller manages different vehicle domain functions – from body and comfort to chassis control, or gateways – and different zonal controllers are connected via a fast ethernet up to 10Gbps, which acts as the vehicle’s backbone.
Central compute architecture is not expected to be broadly adopted until 2030, but adoption is already underway. This approach introduces a high-performance compute cluster, which orchestrates almost all vehicle functions, routing data from various sensors and components through aggregators to a central processing unit. Semiconductor innovations, such as automotive chiplets, will be critical in advancing these architectures, providing the high-performance capabilities required to support the on-demand software updates that consumers now expect.
There’s lots of talk about updating SDV architectures to drive more efficiency. What demands are zonal architectures placing on microcontroller units (MCUs) to deliver from a computing standpoint?
SDVs are only as smart as the architecture behind them. Simply put, they cannot reach their full potential without Zonal Controller Units. These controllers consolidate vehicle functions by physical cluster, rather than by feature. This shift is putting a big spotlight on MCUs and pushing the boundaries of what MCUs need to deliver — process faster, connect more devices, and support emerging features like AI at the edge.
- More Compute: MCUs are being pushed to handle far more real-time computing. As chipmakers seek out arrays of different of logic cores, which run at higher operating frequencies. They are moving to more advanced nodes and bringing different digital cores’ virtualization concepts allowing MCUs to manage multiple tasks flexibly and efficiently.
- Input/Output Overload: Modern vehicles have over 90 smart sensors, 800 sensors and loads, requiring zonal MCUs to have denser digital and analog I/O offerings to handle this level of data processing.
- Memory That Can Keep Up: Embedded non-volatile memory (eNVM) has to get both bigger and faster. Bigger up to 32MB and more, and faster to support the fast-switching digital cores without adding any latencies or risking bottlenecks.
- Faster Communication: The volume of data in cars continues to surge, and MCUs need to move that data — fast. Technologies like high-speed Ethernet and Serializer-Deserializer (SerDes) interfaces are becoming standard to guarantee reliable communication between zones and between zones and complex vehicle sensors.
As zonal compute rises, the analog tasks shift to the vehicle’s edges. Now, auto chipmakers are bundling these functions – motor controllers, audio amps, even communication interfaces into single MCUs on GF’s 130BCD or 55BCD technology platforms.
Speaking of the edge, AI acceleration in vehicles is skyrocketing. How is AI at the edge reshaping the requirements of automotive MCUs in SDVs?
AI at the edge is powering many newer features – battery lifetime extension, in-cabin sensing, voice recognition, intelligent motor control. This approach reduces complexity, costs and power consumption, but it also enhances user privacy by processing information locally, rather than on the cloud. In instances like these where AI acceleration is not happening in central computers or ZCUs, end nodes require embedded AI acceleration to execute these functionalities.
With this evolution, some MCUs are adapting by offering specialized IPs primed for AI acceleration: graphics processing units (GPUs) to run complex mathematical models, language processing units (LPUs) for language and communication models, and digital signal processing (DSPs) to transform real-time signals. For more intensive workloads, MCUs are also integrating faster, more reliable interfaces to connect with external memory, ensuring they can process high volume data required for advanced AI applications.
Safety, security and functionality are non-negotiable. How are MCUs evolving to ensure that SDVs are meeting the highest standards when it comes to these areas?
Functional safety is at the core of automotive design, but the transition to SDVs adds a layer of complexity. Modern MCUs play a vital role in maintaining freedom from interference by isolating safety critical systems from non-safety critical functions. This ensures that safety critical systems, like steering systems, brakes, and airbags, have uninterrupted access to computing resources needed without delays. MCUs can also support advanced error detection triggering fail-safe or fail-operational mechanisms with the right corrective actions to keep passengers safe.
A safe driving experience also requires cybersecurity. MCUs are responsible for securing over-the-air (OTA) updates, verifying new software images come from trusted sources, and protecting the communication happening between nodes. As more critical safety functions become software-driven, the possibilities of vehicle theft schemes, cyber breaches and unauthorized communications rise.
What’s happening behind the scenes with MCUs to enable fast connectivity and low power consumption?
Connectivity is the backbone of SDVs, and MCUs are at the root of connecting everything from zonal controllers to ADAS features and the in-cabin experience. The direction toward simplified network architectures, like IP-to-the-Edge, reduces wire complexity and eliminates the need for multiple gateways, sending data directly from sensors to MCUs with low latency. To support this, MCUs are adopting technologies like Ethernet, which can transfer data at speeds up to 10 Gbps, and 10BaseT1s with multi-drop technology delivering advantages in reducing system costs and system power consumption.
And who doesn’t want lower power consumption and more range on electric vehicles? MCUs are engines powering this future of power-efficient vehicles. Advanced platforms like our 22FDX+ offer minimal power leakage, leading the charge forward to a future of higher performance, lower power vehicles.
Finally, how is GlobalFoundries enabling the next generation of automotive MCUs to support the shift to software-defined vehicles?
GF offers scalability with automotive-qualified platforms to serve diverse SDV needs ranging from compute-heavy analog-heavy or analog-light zonal MCUs to compute-light analog-heavy last mile MCUs. Each GF platform offers a broad portfolio of automotive qualified IPs relevant to its performance class and supported applications.
Resilience is a key part of the equation for success, especially given the long and complex path that comes with qualifying MCU alternatives. That’s why we’ve built a global team and manufacturing footprint, ensuring our customers have reliable access to cutting-edge MCU technologies. This approach empowers us to support the world’s leading automotive manufacturers as they embrace the next chapter of software-defined vehicle architecture.
Wael Fakhreldin is a director of automotive processing at GlobalFoundries. He focuses on automotive microcontrollers, microprocessors, AI accelerators and chiplets enabling next generation vehicle electronic architectures.
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Strategic partnerships are already in place
Strong IP moat & unique technology
Context / Comparison:
typo that evidently hasn’t been updated since 2017 (https://brainchip.com/brainchip-advances-its-position-as-a-leading-artificial-intelligence-provider-with-an-exclusive-license-for-next-generation-neural-network-technology/)…
