Insider Brief
- GlobalFoundries has signed a letter of intent with the U.S. Department of Commerce for a potential $300 million CHIPS R&D award to advance silicon photonics technologies and advanced packaging.
- The funding would support development of optical materials, wafer technologies, and manufacturing capabilities for near-packaged optics and co-packaged optics used in AI and high-performance computing systems.
- GlobalFoundries will build on its silicon photonics platform and SCALE™ technology to expand U.S.-based production capabilities for next-generation optical interconnects.
Press release – GlobalFoundries (Nasdaq: GFS) today announced it has entered into a letter of intent (LOI) with the U.S. Department of Commerce to accelerate research and development of next-generation silicon photonics – the optical technology that moves data at the speed of light and underpins the AI and high-performance computing data centers driving the global economy. Under the LOI, the Department’s CHIPS Research and Development Office is expected to award GF $300 million to advance next-generation optical materials, wafer technologies and advanced packaging, reinforcing U.S. leadership in a technology essential to AI infrastructure.
The award will accelerate GF’s development of next-generation silicon photonics wafer technologies, novel optical materials and advanced packaging, including proven 3D hybrid bonding, that enable the roll-out of near-packaged optics (NPO) and co-packaged optics (CPO). This work builds directly on GF’s recently introduced SCALE™ (Silicon Photonics Co-Packaged Advanced Light Engine) platform, targeting industry-leading modularity, 400Gb/s performance and a 5x increase in energy efficiency over current-generation implementations.
In a separate agreement, the U.S. Department of Commerce will receive equity from GF, representing approximately 1 percent ownership as of today’s date, enabling the American public to share in GF’s growth.
“With today’s compute supply chain investments, the Trump Administration is accelerating America’s innovation engine,” said Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. “These strategic investments will enhance our country’s domestic capabilities, create high-paying jobs and keep America at the forefront of the semiconductor industry.”
“The CHIPS R&D incentives will support a breakthrough in compute and communication networks moving past traditional copper bottlenecking to power next-generation AI,” said Bill Frauenhofer, the Executive Director for Semiconductor Innovation and Investment at the Department of Commerce. “Accelerating R&D for domestic photonics capabilities and advanced packaging provides American industry the extreme bandwidth and energy efficiency to scale complex AI workloads securely and rapidly.”
Silicon photonics enables ultra-high bandwidth, energy-efficient data movement by transmitting information with light rather than electrical signals – delivering greater performance, higher interconnect density and lower power consumption as AI and data center workloads scale. GF’s silicon photonics platform is enabling today’s pluggable optical interconnects and is uniquely positioned to enable the industry’s transition to near-packaged optics (NPO) and co-packaged optics (CPO). Together with GF’s recently introduced SCALE™, customers gain a clear, scalable, U.S.-based path to meeting the demands of next-generation architectures. The work will leverage GF’s existing capabilities in Malta, N.Y., and Burlington, Vt., to help accelerate a U.S.-based path to high-volume silicon photonics manufacturing.
“Silicon photonics is essential to AI infrastructure. For a decade, the industry talked about the shift from copper to optical as something that was coming – today it is here, moving data at higher bandwidth and improved power efficiency as workloads grow more complex,” said Tim Breen, CEO of GlobalFoundries. “GlobalFoundries has spent more than a decade building the technology, footprint and ecosystem to lead this transition, and we have the proven manufacturing foundation to scale it – in the United States – accelerating technology leadership for generations to come. We are proud to deepen our partnership with the U.S. Government, and the CHIPS R&D Office in particular, to accelerate our programs.”
“As we accelerate development of next-generation optical materials and co-packaged optics, GF is building on our already qualified portfolio of photonic devices, proven 3D hybrid bonding and advanced packaging expertise, combined with our manufacturing scale to bring near-packaged and co-packaged optics to high volume – putting our customers on a direct, U.S.-based path to scaling optical connectivity for tomorrow’s AI systems,” said Gregg Bartlett, chief technology officer of GlobalFoundries.
GF is working with leading customers to ensure emerging NPO and CPO architectures and next-generation optical engines are supported by U.S.-based silicon photonics R&D. These efforts reflect a shared focus on scaling the technologies that will drive the next wave of AI and data center performance.
“As AI systems scale, moving data efficiently is as critical as increasing compute performance. Silicon photonics and advanced packaging will be key to delivering the bandwidth, energy efficiency, and system-level connectivity required for the next generation of AI cluster infrastructure. We welcome GlobalFoundries’ continued investment in U.S.-based innovation and manufacturing, and the broader public-private collaboration needed to advance these foundational technologies,” said AMD CTO and EVP Mark Papermaster.
“As AI workloads continue to grow in size and complexity, scaling the infrastructure that connects increasingly powerful compute clusters is becoming one of the industry’s defining challenges. Advances in optical interconnects, silicon photonics and advanced packaging will be critical to enabling the next generation of AI architectures. GlobalFoundries’ announcement today helps strengthen the innovation ecosystem needed to accelerate development of these foundational technologies,” said Near Margalit, VP and GM of Optical Systems Division, Broadcom.
“As AI infrastructure scales, moving data efficiently is becoming as important as compute itself. Advances in silicon photonics and optical interconnects will be critical to enabling the bandwidth, performance and energy efficiency future AI systems require. GlobalFoundries’ investment in next-generation silicon photonics technologies helps strengthen the foundation for future AI networking and optical infrastructure,” said Jeetu Patel, President and Chief Product Officer of Cisco.
Corning
“The rapid growth of AI is driving unprecedented bandwidth demands, making optical connectivity essential to next-generation data centers. Meeting these demands will require innovation across the ecosystem from advanced materials and optical components to silicon photonics and packaging. Investments such as GlobalFoundries’ announcement today help strengthen the U.S. innovation and manufacturing base needed to scale future AI infrastructure,” said Wendell P. Weeks, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President of Corning Incorporated.
Lumentum
“AI is driving unprecedented demand for optical connectivity that can move more data while consuming less power. Meeting that challenge will require continued innovation across the silicon photonics ecosystem and a strong, resilient U.S.-based supply chain capable of scaling advanced optical technologies. GlobalFoundries’ investments in silicon photonics and advanced packaging, combined with support from the U.S. government, are helping accelerate an open path to next-generation optical interconnect that will be essential for the future of AI and high-performance computing,” said Michael Hurlston, CEO of Lumentum.
Marvell
“The bottleneck in AI infrastructure is shifting from compute to connectivity – the ability to move data between and within systems without letting bandwidth or power constraints limit performance. As a leader in silicon photonics and optical connectivity, Marvell welcomes continued investment in U.S.-based R&D to accelerate the transition to near-packaged and co-packaged optics, key to scaling the next generation of AI infrastructure,” said Chris Koopmans, President and Chief Operating Officer, Marvell.
“Silicon photonics technologies will play a critical role in future generations of Meta’s AI infrastructure. We believe that a multi-supplier, geographically diverse ecosystem produces the best technical innovations and the most scalable high-volume supply chains, and investing in U.S. manufacturing capacity is a crucial component in achieving this goal”, said Yee Jiun Song, VP of Engineering, Meta.
“The next generation of AI infrastructure will require significant advances in networking, optical interconnects and data movement. Silicon photonics is an important enabling technology for meeting those demands. Microsoft welcomes industrywide investments that accelerate innovation and strengthen the ecosystem developing the technologies that will power the future of AI,” said Rani Borkar, President of Azure Hardware Systems and Infrastructure, Microsoft.
“Rebuilding our supply chains is critical to the new industrial revolution. Scaling US manufacturing requires advances across chips, networking, optics, software, and manufacturing. Silicon photonics is essential to that future, and GlobalFoundries brings the manufacturing expertise to help make it real in the United States,” said NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang.
“As AI expands across cloud, enterprise and edge environments, enabling greater performance and efficiency will require innovation throughout the technology stack. Silicon photonics has the potential to play an important role in supporting next-generation AI platforms by helping address growing bandwidth and connectivity demands. We welcome efforts that advance innovation in this important technology area,” said Kevin O’Buckley, Qualcomm Executive Vice President, Global Operations and Supply Chain.
