GlobalFoundries Plans Second Malta Chip Fab with Japanese Investment
On Wednesday, October 14, GlobalFoundries announced plans to build a second manufacturing plant in Malta. Located next to the existing fab at the Luther Forest Technology Campus, the shovel-ready facility is expected to be completed in 2029.
A 10-billion-dollar investment from Japan enabled by the Trump administration’s trade and investment agreement will accelerate construction of a new 300 millimeter semiconductor fab.
The project is expected to create about 27,000 construction and ecosystem jobs and more than 1,000 high-skilled manufacturing jobs. The new fab will add approximately 900,000 300-millimeter wafers of annual U.S. manufacturing capacity when fully operational.
“This is a bold new initiative for semiconductor manufacturing, bringing together the United States and Japan with GF’s differentiated technology and decades of manufacturing expertise to accelerate trusted capacity in New York,” said Tim Breen, CEO of GlobalFoundries.
An additional 10-billion-dollars was announced for a third semiconductor fab; however, a construction date was not announced.
GlobalFoundries and the U.S. Department of Commerce agreed to reallocate almost 1 billion dollars in an existing CHIPS and Science Act award towards investments in silicon photonics. The award was originally appropriated for construction of a new fab.
In a separate agreement, the U.S. Department of Commerce will receive four percent equity in GlobalFoundries.