Anchored by a $375 million award from the U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC), pure-play foundry GlobalFoundries (GF) has launched a new quantum business designed to transition quantum hardware from lab to industrial scale.
Called the Quantum Technology Solutions, the effort will be led by quantum companies that will likely use GF’s manufacturing for the semiconductor technologies that will be used to fuel the quantum technologies.
The business launches with eight customer engagements already in place:
- Diraq
- Equal1
- Google Quantum AI
- Microsoft Quantum
- Nvidia
- PsiQuantum
- Quantinuum
- Quantum Motion
To bring quantum technologies to scale, GF will utilize its partnership with the U.S. government and users across the semiconductor ecosystem as well as its sustained investment in cryogenic CMOS, advanced packaging and materials science.
Cryogenic CMOS
Cryogenic CMOS is the sensing, control and readout technology that quantum systems require to function.
GF’s FDX platform is the foundation for the company’s quantum manufacturing effort. Due to these quantum processors needing to operate at very low temperatures, chips that read and control them must also function at cryogenic conditions. Something standard CMOS cannot do.
GF said it has spent more than a decade developing its cryogenic capabilities through partnerships with quantum computing vendors. This will be the basis for the company to integrate quantum processor units (QPUs) into industrial-scale quantum systems.
GF said that while CPUs, GPUs and AI ASICs currently dominate the high-performance computing (HPC) market, complete quantum hardware solutions will be the future.
Government investment
Like what the U.S. government did with Intel with its 10% stake, the U.S. DoC will receive a strategic equity investment in GF, representing about 1% of the company.
“These strategic quantum technology investments will build on our domestic industry, creating thousands of high-paying American jobs while advancing American quantum capabilities,” said Howard Lutnick, U.S. secretary of commerce.
And GF is not the only one the government is investing in.
Why it matters
GF has been investing in quantum technologies for years and is looking far ahead to the future of manufacturing than what is currently feasible today. If the company can get a foot in the door early, it may be able to create a whole ecosystem in quantum computing, like how TSMC has become a full-service semiconductor manufacturer.
And it already has the customer list to help get it there with some of the biggest names in technology — Google, Microsoft, Nvidia — involved from the get-go.
While still many years off, GF is planting its flag in quantum computing and getting paid to do it by the government.
