San­ta Cla­ra, CA and Hsin­chu, Tai­wan, R.O.C. Oct. 28, 2019 – GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF) and TSMC today announ­ced they are dis­miss­ing all liti­ga­ti­on bet­ween them as well as tho­se that invol­ve any of their cus­to­mers. The com­pa­nies have agreed to a broad life-of-patents cross-licen­se to each other’s world­wi­de exis­ting semi­con­duc­tor patents as well as tho­se patents that will be filed during the next ten years as both com­pa­nies con­ti­nue to invest signi­fi­cant­ly in semi­con­duc­tor rese­arch and development. 

This reso­lu­ti­on gua­ran­tees GF and TSMC free­dom to ope­ra­te and ensu­res that their respec­ti­ve cus­to­mers will con­ti­nue to have access to each foundry’s com­ple­te array of tech­no­lo­gies and services.

“We are plea­sed to have quick­ly rea­ched this sett­le­ment that ack­now­led­ges the strength of our respec­ti­ve intellec­tu­al pro­per­ty. Today’s announce­ment enables both of our com­pa­nies to focus on inno­va­ti­on and to bet­ter ser­ve our cli­ents around the world,” said Tho­mas Caul­field, CEO of GF. “This agree­ment bet­ween GF and TSMC secu­res GF’s abili­ty to grow and is a win for the enti­re semi­con­duc­tor indus­try which is at the core of today’s glo­bal economy.” 

“The semi­con­duc­tor indus­try has always been high­ly com­pe­ti­ti­ve, dri­ving the play­ers to pur­sue inno­va­ti­on that enri­ched the lives of mil­li­ons of peo­p­le around the world. TSMC has inves­ted tens of bil­li­ons of dol­lars towards inno­va­ti­on to reach our lea­ding posi­ti­on today,” said Syl­via Fang, Gene­ral Coun­sel for TSMC. “The reso­lu­ti­on is a posi­ti­ve deve­lo­p­ment that keeps our focus on advan­cing the needs of our cus­to­mers for tech­no­lo­gies that will con­ti­nue to bring inno­va­ti­on to life, enab­ling the enti­re semi­con­duc­tor indus­try to thri­ve and prosper.”

About GLOBALFOUNDRIES

GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF) is the world’s lea­ding spe­cial­ty foundry. We deli­ver dif­fe­ren­tia­ted fea­ture-rich solu­ti­ons that enable our cli­ents to deve­lop inno­va­ti­ve pro­ducts for high-growth mar­ket seg­ments. GF pro­vi­des a broad ran­ge of plat­forms and fea­tures with a uni­que mix of design, deve­lo­p­ment and fabri­ca­ti­on ser­vices. With an at-sca­le manu­fac­tu­ring foot­print span­ning the U.S., Euro­pe and Asia, GF has the fle­xi­bi­li­ty and agi­li­ty to meet the dyna­mic needs of cli­ents across the glo­be. GF is owned by Muba­d­a­la Invest­ment Com­pa­ny. For more infor­ma­ti­on, visit globalfoundries.com.

About TSMC

TSMC pio­nee­red the pure-play foundry busi­ness model when it was foun­ded in 1987, and has been the world’s lar­gest dedi­ca­ted semi­con­duc­tor foundry ever sin­ce. The com­pa­ny sup­ports a thri­ving eco­sys­tem of glo­bal cus­to­mers and part­ners with the industry’s lea­ding pro­cess tech­no­lo­gy and port­fo­lio of design ena­blem­ent solu­ti­ons to unleash inno­va­ti­on for the glo­bal semi­con­duc­tor industry. 

TSMC ser­ves its cus­to­mers with glo­bal capa­ci­ty of more than 12 mil­li­on 12-inch equi­va­lent wafers per year in 2019, and pro­vi­des the broa­dest ran­ge of tech­no­lo­gies from 2 micron all the way to foundry’s most advan­ced pro­ces­ses, which is 7‑nanometer today. TSMC is the first foundry to pro­vi­de 7‑nanometer pro­duc­tion capa­bi­li­ties and the first to com­mer­cia­li­ze Extre­me Ultra­vio­let (EUV) litho­gra­phy tech­no­lo­gy in deli­ve­ring cus­to­mer pro­ducts to mar­ket in high volu­me. TSMC is head­quar­te­red in Hsin­chu, Tai­wan. For more infor­ma­ti­on about TSMC plea­se visit http://www.tsmc.com.