Just as it prepares to compete for more federal funding via the CHIPS Act, GlobalFoundries has announced a major long-term supply agreement with General Motors that will help it demonstrate the market demand for its chips and its need for more dollars to build capacity to meet that demand..
GlobalFoundries called the deal a “first-of-its-kind agreement” that establishes a dedicated capacity corridor “exclusively" for GM’s chip supply. The manufacturing for GM’s chip suppliers will occur at GlobalFoundries facility in upstate New York.
The new agreement reportedly will not keep GlobalFoundries from working with other auto companies. The foundry firm has an existing supply agreement with Ford that was announced in 2021.
“We see our semiconductor requirements more than doubling over the next several years as vehicles become technology platforms,” said Doug Parks, GM executive vice president of Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain. “The supply agreement with GlobalFoundries will help establish a strong, resilient supply of critical technology in the U.S. that will help GM meet this demand, while delivering new technology and features to our customers.”
“At GF we are committed to working with our customers in new and innovative ways to best address the challenges of today’s global supply chains,” said Dr. Thomas Caulfield, president and CEO of GF. “GF will expand its production capabilities exclusively for GM’s supply chain, enabling us to strengthen our partnership with the automotive industry and New York State, while further accelerating automotive innovation with U.S.-based manufacturing for a more resilient supply chain.”
More details about the CHIPS Act application process for semiconductor companies seeking funding are due from the federal government this month.
The GM agreement made an already busy day for GlobalFoundries even busier. Earlier on Thursday the company announced that it acquired Renesas Electronics Corporation’s proprietary and production proven Conductive Bridging Random Access Memory (CBRAM) technology, a low power memory solution with tolerance for operating in harsh environments that is designed to enable a range of applications in home and industrial IoT and smart mobile devices.
The transaction further strengthens GF’s memory portfolio and extends its roadmap of embedded non-volatile memory (NVM) solutions. The technology will help clients to further differentiate their SoC designs and advance a new generation of secure and intelligent devices, according to GlobalFoundries
“We’re committed to differentiating our technology portfolio to be the foundation of our customers’ energy efficient IoT applications today and for decades to come,” said Mike Hogan, chief business officer of GF. “With the acquisition of this innovative memory technology, GF is now playing an essential role in accelerating development of NVM solutions which will enable our customers to design the next generation of intelligent and connected devices. CBRAM technology unleashes a new paradigm of performance and ultra-low energy use, enabling a wide range of applications, from wearable devices to smartphones, to extend the time between battery charges from hours to weeks to years in specific use cases.”
The acquisition comes after GlobalFoundries in 2020 entered into a licensing agreement with Dialog Semiconductor, which was acquired by Renesas in 2021, to offer its CBRAM technology as an embedded, NVM option.
The GM agreement and the Renesas CBRAM acquisition were both announced just days before GlobalFoundries is scheduled to report its fourth quarter and full-year 2022 earnings next Tuesday, Feb. 14.