AMD Gives Up Remaining Globalfoundries Shares, Pays $425M
There is a new agreement between AMD and GlobalFoundries that transfers AMD's remaining 8.8 percent ownership in the foundry to ATIC.
As a result, AMD has become a fabless chip designer as of today. AMD announced in October 2008 that it would spin off its manufacturing business as part of a restructuring effort.
Additionally, GlobalFoundries and AMD agreed to end an agreement that gave GlobalFoundries the exclusive right to manufacture "certain 28 nm products", which opens the door for AMD to approach other foundries to balance its processor manufacturing strategy and secure capacity as well as supply. The new agreement, which will require AMD to pay GlobalFoundries $425 million in cash, also includes a term that releases AMD from quarterly payment obligations of GlobalFoundries as part of a contract that was signed last year.
In a prepared statement, AMD CEO Rory Read was quoted saying that "the amended wafer supply agreement demonstrates that AMD and GlobalFoundries remain committed as long-term strategic business partners. We made significant progress last year to strengthen our relationship, and we're pleased with GlobalFoundries' recent performance in meeting our delivery requirements across our product line."
It appears that AMD is going to great lengths to get out of the exclusivity agreements with GlobalFoundries. The company said that the move will cost about $703 million in total - which includes a non-cash charge of $278 million in addition to the $425 million cash payment.

ya, i totally agree, it should be the other way around. GF should be paying AMD for all the crap they caused, and AMD is giving up its shares of the company, they just can't get a break.
ya, i totally agree, it should be the other way around. GF should be paying AMD for all the crap they caused, and AMD is giving up its shares of the company, they just can't get a break.
GF has been a source of production issues for AMD since it was conceived. AMD spun GF off to be more flexible and it became their biggest hindrance. GF never really got production up to competitive output levels and constantly had quality issues. They also were the cause of a lot of AMD's delays.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GlobalFoundries
Now AMD will have a little more flexibility in deciding who gets tender of Manufacture on their design.
Of course AMD have to pay to get out of exclusivity contract, GF was essentially SOLD in that state to private investment Consortium with Abu Dhabi's Advanced Technology Investment Co! being the largest.
They would have wanted AMD tied to using them for a period of time, or what would be the point in them investing!
This still leaves AMD short on their Design front though, and that is where AMD has real issues in the CPU world.. Maybe the CPU design guys should spend more time with the GPU guys to see how to execute correctly!
Now they made Intel cocky, giving a new socket every 6 months and mostly incompatible with previous sockets...
Now are the days where i can brag that i got the best bang for the buck, and tell people just how much less i spent for a machine that performs negligibly less than an intel computer, but with many more coolass features.