GlobalFoundries is the world’s third largest contract chip manufacturer (representative)
The U.S. government will allocate $1.5 billion to GlobalFoundries to expand semiconductor production in an effort to strengthen domestic supply chains after the coronavirus pandemic exposed weaknesses, the Biden administration said on Monday.
GlobalFoundries, the world’s third-largest contract chipmaker, will build a new semiconductor production facility in Malta, New York, and expand existing operations there and in Burlington, Vermont, under a preliminary agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The department said the $1.5 million grant will be accompanied by $1.6 billion in available loans, which is expected to bring total potential investment to the two states of $12.5 billion.
Biden administration officials said the projects funded under the CHIPS and Science Act will create more than 10,000 jobs over a decade, adding that the positions will pay fair wages and provide benefits such as child care.
“The chips GlobalFoundries will produce at these new facilities are critical to our national security,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters at a news conference.
The chips, which are about the size of a fingernail, are used in satellite and space communications and the defense industry, in addition to everyday applications such as blind spot detection and collision warning in cars and electric vehicles and Wi-Fi and wireless networks, officials said. Cellular connection.
“As an industry, we now need to turn our attention to increasing demand for American-made chips and developing a talented American semiconductor workforce,” GlobalFoundries President and CEO Thomas Caulfield said in a statement. “
GlobalFoundries opened a $4 billion semiconductor manufacturing plant in Singapore in September as part of a major expansion of global manufacturing.
Raimondo said this is the third time the government has announced CHIPS, and her department plans to make multiple grants available in the coming weeks and months from the government’s $39 billion semiconductor manufacturing program.
“We’re just getting started,” she said.
Raimondo added that the expansion of the Malta plant will ensure a stable supply of chips for automotive suppliers and manufacturers, including General Motors (GM).
GlobalFoundries and General Motors announced a long-term deal on February 9 to provide the automaker with U.S.-made processors that will help the company avoid chip shortages that could lead to factory shutdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic. During this period, millions of cars were unable to be produced.
“Today’s announcement will ensure that this does not happen again,” Raimondo said during a briefing on the agreement on Sunday.
She added that the new factory in Malta will produce high-value chips that are not currently produced anywhere in the United States.
She said the revamped Burlington plant will be the first in the United States capable of high-volume production of gallium nitride, the next-generation silicon semiconductor used in electric vehicles, power grids and smartphones.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
