Semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries has announced plans to invest an additional $3 billion to build U.S.-based chip manufacturing facilities. This new investment is in addition to GF’s already announced $13 billion investment in building and expanding American semiconductor manufacturing capacity.
The company, based in Malta, New York but majority owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, said it is working with the Trump administration to develop semiconductor manufacturing capacity within the United States. GF’s additional $3 billion in research and development investment will support a few key areas. These include silicon photonic—an area of strength for GF—which supports the development of quantum computers by enabling far faster data transmission. GF will also budget investment for chip packaging systems and technologies, and gallium nitride, which is essential for next-gen uses like AI-capable servers and electric vehicles.
GF has developed a highly focused but profitable strategy in the semi market. Instead of making chips that compete with industry leaders, GF has become an important manufacturer of niche semis that are need for IoT, transport, communication and imaging use cases.
The new $3 billion announcement adds to the $13 billion investment announced in 2024, before Trump was president. In fact, GF was granted $1.5 billion in U.S. CHIPS and Science Act funding in 2024 for allocating its original $13 billion to expand its chip fabrication facilities in Vermont and New York. The Chips Act was legislation by President Joe Biden on 2022, with the goal of boosting the U.S. domestic supply chain and supporting U.S. competitiveness in semiconductor production.
In any case, the announcement of additional investment in U.S. based semi production is a significant development in chip manufacturing. Historically, the majority of semiconductors have been fabricated outside the U.S. As of 2023, U.S.-based plants manufactured a mere 12% of the world’s semiconductors, having declined from 37% in 1990. The leading chip making country is Taiwan, home to TSMC, and South Korea hosts top companies like SK Hynix and Samsung. The international nature of the chip supply chain became concerning to U.S. leaders as the tech sector grew in dominance, which was one of the drivers behind 2022’s passage of the Chips Act.
GlobalFoundries is not alone in investing in a U.S.-based tech supply chain—a move that appears at least partially based on avoiding costs from the Trump tariffs. As previously reported on Techstrong.IT, NVIDIA this year announced plans to build over a million feet of manufacturing space, breaking ground for two supercomputer manufacturing plants in Texas. Furthermore, NVIDIA contracted to fabricate some of its Blackwell chips in TSMC’s facility in Phoenix, Arizona.
“The engines of the world’s AI infrastructure are being built in the United States for the first time,” said Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA in April.
Ironically, GlobalFoundries is also currently developing facilities in other countries. It has just announced plans to set up a fabless design and testing center in Kolkata, West Bengal, a state in the eastern portion of India. The facility will be within the city’s prominent IT hub, and will include 13,000 square feet of space, with another 19,000 square feet requested. The Chief Minister of West Bengal hailed the development as a marking a major step in the state’s goal of establishing a foothold in the semiconductor industry.
