GlobalFoundries will build two fabs on its existing site in upstate New York
with up to $21 billion of Japanese financing, according to an agreement
announced Wednesday. The plants will be jointly held by the United States and
Japan, and the U.S. government will acquire about a 4% stake in GlobalFoundries.
Construction funding will come from Japan’s previously pledged $550 billion of
investment in the U.S. The new facilities will produce foundational
chips—lower-complexity but widely used semiconductors for autos, industrial
equipment and communications—to boost U.S. supply and reduce reliance on East
Asian vendors. The deal is pitched as a response to U.S. national-security
concerns and to ease base-chip tightness intensified as industry capacity shifts
toward advanced AI accelerators such as NVIDIA’s.
