Foundry chipmaker Globalfoundries Inc. is planning to spend up to $10 billion at its wafer fab site in New York, according to a Reuters report. The money will be used to help bring up 20nm and 14nm manufacturing capacity, reports said.
It is possible that the funding could be used for the construction of a second wafer fab, the so-called Fab 8.2, which Globalfoundries has previously tipped was being planned. This would likely spread the spending out over a number of years. An application to build a fab submitted by Globalfoundries to the local authority received unanimous approval in August 2013.
The recent report quoted Ibrahim Ajami, chief executive officer of Advanced Technology Investment Co (ATIC) the parent company that owns Globalfoundries and which is an arm of Abu Dhabi state investment fund Mubadala. "We have received commitments from Mubadala for an additional $9 billion to $10 billion for expansion of our facility in New York," the report quoted Ajami as saying in a telephone conversation on Friday January 3.
Ajami said that ATIC also plans to invest in wafer fabs in Germany and Singapore. according to the Reuters report.
ATIC created GlobalFoundries Inc. (Milpitas) through the acquisition of the chip manufacturing capabilities of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and putting them together with Singapore-based Chartered Semiconductor. The company thereby inherited manufacturing sites in Dresden, Germany and Singapore and has invested substantially to create a wafer fab in upstate New York.
Globalfoundries Fab 8 at Malta in New York has a manufacturing capacity of about 60,000 wafer starts per month.
The investment program being administered by Mubadala and ATIC is part of plan to use the United Arab Emirate's oil wealth to prepare for a global post-oil economy.
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