Semi­con­duc­tor manu­fac­tu­rer rea­ligns lea­ding-edge road­map to meet cli­ent need and estab­lishes whol­ly-owned sub­si­dia­ry to design cus­tom ASICs

San­ta Cla­ra, Calif., August 27, 2018 – GLOBALFOUNDRIES today announ­ced an important step in its trans­for­ma­ti­on, con­ti­nuing the tra­jec­to­ry laun­ched with the appoint­ment of Tom Caul­field as CEO ear­lier this year. In line with the stra­te­gic direc­tion Caul­field has arti­cu­la­ted, GF is res­ha­ping its tech­no­lo­gy port­fo­lio to inten­si­fy its focus on deli­ve­ring tru­ly dif­fe­ren­tia­ted offe­rings for cli­ents in high-growth markets.

GF is rea­lig­ning its lea­ding-edge Fin­FET road­map to ser­ve the next wave of cli­ents that will adopt the tech­no­lo­gy in the coming years. The com­pa­ny will shift deve­lo­p­ment resour­ces to make its 14/12nm Fin­FET plat­form more rele­vant to the­se cli­ents, deli­ve­ring a ran­ge of inno­va­ti­ve IP and fea­tures inclu­ding RF, embedded memo­ry, low power and more. To sup­port this tran­si­ti­on, GF is put­ting its 7nm Fin­FET pro­gram on hold inde­fi­ni­te­ly and res­truc­tu­ring its rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment teams to sup­port its enhan­ced port­fo­lio initia­ti­ves. This will requi­re a work­force reduc­tion, howe­ver a signi­fi­cant num­ber of top tech­no­lo­gists will be rede­ploy­ed on 14/12nm Fin­FET deri­va­ti­ves and other dif­fe­ren­tia­ted offerings.

“Demand for semi­con­duc­tors has never been hig­her, and cli­ents are asking us to play an ever-incre­asing role in enab­ling tomorrow’s tech­no­lo­gy inno­va­tions,” Caul­field said. “The vast majo­ri­ty of today’s fab­less cus­to­mers are loo­king to get more value out of each tech­no­lo­gy gene­ra­ti­on to levera­ge the sub­stan­ti­al invest­ments requi­red to design into each tech­no­lo­gy node. Essen­ti­al­ly, the­se nodes are tran­si­tio­ning to design plat­forms ser­ving mul­ti­ple waves of appli­ca­ti­ons, giving each node grea­ter lon­ge­vi­ty. This indus­try dyna­mic has resul­ted in fewer fab­less cli­ents desig­ning into the outer limits of Moore’s Law. We are shif­ting our resour­ces and focus by doubling down on our invest­ments in dif­fe­ren­tia­ted tech­no­lo­gies across our enti­re port­fo­lio that are most rele­vant to our cli­ents in gro­wing mar­ket segments.”

In addi­ti­on, to bet­ter levera­ge GF’s strong heri­ta­ge and signi­fi­cant invest­ments in ASIC design and IP, the com­pa­ny is estab­li­shing its ASIC busi­ness as a whol­ly-owned sub­si­dia­ry, inde­pen­dent from the foundry busi­ness. A rele­vant ASIC busi­ness requi­res con­tin­ued access to lea­ding-edge tech­no­lo­gy. This inde­pen­dent ASIC enti­ty will pro­vi­de cli­ents with access to alter­na­ti­ve foundry opti­ons at 7nm and bey­ond, while allo­wing the ASIC busi­ness to enga­ge with a broa­der set of cli­ents, espe­ci­al­ly the gro­wing num­ber of sys­tems com­pa­nies that need ASIC capa­bi­li­ties and more manu­fac­tu­ring sca­le than GF can pro­vi­de alone.

GF is inten­si­fy­ing invest­ment in are­as whe­re it has clear dif­fe­ren­tia­ti­on and adds true value for cli­ents, with an empha­sis on deli­ve­ring fea­ture-rich offe­rings across its port­fo­lio. This includes con­tin­ued focus on its FDXTM plat­form, lea­ding RF offe­rings (inclu­ding RF SOI and high-per­for­mance SiGe), analog/mixed signal, and other tech­no­lo­gies desi­gned for a gro­wing num­ber of appli­ca­ti­ons that requi­re low power, real-time con­nec­ti­vi­ty, and on-board intel­li­gence. GF is uni­que­ly posi­tio­ned to ser­ve this bur­geo­ning mar­ket for “con­nec­ted intel­li­gence,” with strong demand in new are­as such as auto­no­mous dri­ving, IoT and the glo­bal tran­si­ti­on to 5G.

“Lif­ting the bur­den of inves­t­ing at the lea­ding edge will allow GF to make more tar­ge­ted invest­ments in tech­no­lo­gies that real­ly mat­ter to the majo­ri­ty of chip desi­gners in fast-gro­wing mar­kets such as RF, IoT, 5G, indus­tri­al and auto­mo­ti­ve,” said Samu­el Wang, rese­arch vice pre­si­dent at Gart­ner. “While the lea­ding edge gets most of the head­lines, fewer cus­to­mers can afford the tran­si­ti­on to 7nm and finer geo­me­tries. 14nm and abo­ve tech­no­lo­gies will con­ti­nue to be the important demand dri­ver for the foundry busi­ness for many years to come. The­re is signi­fi­cant room for inno­va­ti­on on the­se nodes to fuel the next wave of technology.”

About GF

GLOBALFOUNDRIES is a lea­ding full-ser­vice semi­con­duc­tor foundry pro­vi­ding a uni­que com­bi­na­ti­on of design, deve­lo­p­ment, and fabri­ca­ti­on ser­vices to some of the world’s most inspi­red tech­no­lo­gy com­pa­nies. With a glo­bal manu­fac­tu­ring foot­print span­ning three con­ti­nents, GLOBALFOUNDRIES makes pos­si­ble the tech­no­lo­gies and sys­tems that trans­form indus­tries and give cli­ents the power to shape their mar­kets. GLOBALFOUNDRIES is owned by Muba­d­a­la Invest­ment Com­pa­ny. For more infor­ma­ti­on, visit http://www.globalfoundries.com.