GlobalFoundries has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with the US Department of Commerce (DOC) for an expected award of $300m aimed at accelerating research and development (R&D) in silicon photonics.
The anticipated funding forms part of the Department’s CHIPS R&D Office initiatives. It will support work on optical materials, wafer technologies, and advanced packaging, which are seen as essential for the infrastructure underpinning AI and high-performance computing data centres.
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The funding is intended to speed up the development of next-generation silicon photonics wafer technologies and new optical materials, as well as advanced packaging techniques such as 3D hybrid bonding.
These advancements target the deployment of near-packaged optics and co-packaged optics, building on GlobalFoundries’ recently introduced Silicon Photonics Co-Packaged Advanced Light Engine (SCALE) platform.
According to the company, the SCALE platform is designed for modularity, 400Gb/s performance, and aims to provide a fivefold increase in energy efficiency compared to current implementations.
Under a separate agreement, the US DOC will receive equity from GlobalFoundries, reflecting approximately 1% ownership of the company as of the signing date. This move is described as allowing the US public to participate in the company’s future growth.
US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said: “With today’s compute supply chain investments, the Trump Administration is accelerating America’s innovation engine.
“These strategic investments will enhance our country’s domestic capabilities, create high-paying jobs and keep America at the forefront of the semiconductor industry.”
GlobalFoundries plans to use its manufacturing facilities in Malta, New York and Burlington, Vermont for the project.
GlobalFoundries CEO Tim Breen said: “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.
“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 US — accelerating technology leadership for generations to come.”
The US DOC, in May, signed LOIs with nine companies for a total of over $2bn in federal incentives under the CHIPS and Science Act, focusing on developments in quantum computing. These companies included GlobalFoundries and IBM, in addition to seven other quantum computing firms.
