GlobalFoundries is looking to be sold by its investors following a sharp reduction in its workforce and the recent separation of some of its Singapore assets.
Hynix and Samsung are potential buyers of GlobalFoundries
Some time ago we heard that GlobalFoundries had abandoned the development and manufacture of state-of-the-art chips and left the 7nm race. Now, with this information, we understand why.
GlobalFoundries once promised to lead the production of nodes at 7nm and 5nm, but the company was excluded from the 10nm race, so AMD, its largest customer, looked for 7nm supplies from TSMC. GlobalFoundries is the third largest semiconductor supplier in the world with a market share of 8.4% behind TSMC and Samsung. Intel does not provide manufacturing services to third parties as its laboratories are fully dedicated to manufacturing its own products.
The main investor in GlobalFoundries is Mubadala Technology, based in Abu Dhabi, which has a 90% stake in the company. The Korean semiconductor companies Samsung and SK Hynix are expected to purchase GlobalFoundries as this would give them a key presence in the United States with their plants in the hinterland of New York.
According to experts, it is very unlikely that global foundries can be bought by any Chinese company as the CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) would block the sale as Donald Trump imposed trade restrictions on this country.
Potential candidates include South Korean companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Samsung could increase its market share to 23% by acquiring GlobalFoundries. Said an industry source. We’ll see what happens.