US awards $1.5 billion to GlobalFoundries for domestic semiconductor
production
Send a link to a friend
 [February 19, 2024] By
Doina Chiacu
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government is awarding $1.5 billion to
GlobalFoundries to expand semiconductor production, the Biden
administration said on Monday, in a bid to strengthen domestic supply
chains.
GlobalFoundries, the world's third-largest contract chipmaker, will
build a new semiconductor production facility in Malta, New York, and
expand existing operations there and in Burlington, Vermont, according
to a preliminary agreement with the Commerce Department.
The grant will be accompanied by $1.6 billion in available loans, with
the funding expected to generate $12.5 billion in overall potential
investment across the two states.
The projects, funded under the CHIPS and Science Act, would generate
more than 10,000 jobs over a decade, said Biden administration
officials, adding that the positions will pay fair wages and offer
benefits like childcare.
"The chips that GlobalFoundries will make in these new facilities are
essential chips to our national security," Commerce Secretary Gina
Raimondo told reporters at a briefing.
The chips, as small as a fingernail, are used in satellite and space
communications and the defense industry, the officials said, in addition
to everyday applications such as blind spot detection and collision
warnings in cars and electric vehicles, along with wifi and cellular
connections.
"As an industry, we now need to turn our attention to increasing the
demand for U.S.-made chips, and to growing our talented U.S.
semiconductor workforce," said Thomas Caulfield, president and CEO of
GlobalFoundries in a statement.
Raimondo said this is the government's third CHIPS announcement and her
department planned to make several funding awards within the coming
weeks and months from the government's $39 billion program to boost
semiconductor manufacturing.
[to top of second column] |
A signage at U.S. chipmaker GlobalFoundries' new fabrication plant
in Singapore, September 12, 2023. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo
"We're just getting started," she said.
The Malta facility expansion will secure a stable supply of chips
for auto suppliers and manufacturers, including General Motors (GM),
Raimondo added.
GlobalFoundries and GM on Feb. 9 announced a long-term deal for the
automaker to secure U.S.-made processors that will help it avoid
factory-halting chip shortages that kept millions of cars from being
manufactured during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Today's announcement will ensure that this doesn't happen again,"
Raimondo said Sunday in a briefing on the agreement.
The new facility in Malta will produce high-value chips that are not
currently made anywhere in the United States, she added.
The revamped facility in Burlington will become the first U.S.
facility capable of high-volume manufacturing of next-generation
gallium nitride on silicon semiconductors used in electric vehicles,
the power grid and smartphones, she said.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Scott Malone, Chris Reese and
Varun H K)
[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
