Brussels (Brussels Morning) Thomas Caulfield, CEO of US GlobalFoundries semiconductor foundry, has announced plans to invest US$ 1.4 billion in factories in Germany, Singapore and the US, Reuters reports.
The move comes against the backdrop of a global shortage of semiconductors, which is driving up the demand for chips.
“The adoption of technology that would normally have taken a decade happened in one year in 2020 because of COVID-19,” Caulfield said. He noted that prior to the pandemic, the chip industry had been expected to grow roughly 5% over five years.
Plans to increase production capacity
Now, GlobalFoundries is looking to the planned investment to boost production capacity in 2022, with Caulfield indicating he expects production to increase 13% this year and 20% next year. He said that approximately one third of the investment will come from clients seeking to secure their supply over the coming years.
If demand continues to go up, the company could build a new production facility next to its existing factory in Saratoga County, New York. Caulfield stressed that the plan to build the new factory hinges on congressional approval of incentives for chip manufacturing in the US as part of the Chips Act, which was approved in 2020.
IPO sooner than planned?
GlobalFoundries, a unit of Abu Dhabi‘s state-owned fund Mubadala Investment Company, aims for revenue growth between 9% and 10% this year. The company is considering the possibility of moving the date of its initial public offering from late 2022 or early 2023 to the end of this year or early 2022.
It is among the three largest semiconductor foundries in the world, along with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and South Korean Samsung Electronics.
The global shortage of chips has caused manufacturing delays in production of electronics and automobiles, with automotive groups such as General Motors, Ford and Volkswagen cutting output.
