AMD Foundry Spinoff Named GlobalFoundries

In October 2008, AMD announced that it’d be ditching the actual fabrication of its chip technology, and will be spinning off its factories to an outside company.

At the time of the announcement, AMD CEO Dirk Meyer said in a statement that the decision to spin off chip making was about improving finances and creating a company with a tightened focus. The company hoped that rethinking the structure of the company will give AMD a second wind in competing against rival, Intel.

Prior to today, the chipmaking spinoff was called simply the Foundry Company. Now, after months of paper work, the new company has its formal name, and it’s called the slightly more inspired GlobalFoundries.

The new company logo


Just because GlobalFoundries is now a separate entity doesn’t mean that it’ll be making chips for Intel or Nvidia -- at least not in the immediate future. GlobalFoundries said in a press release that it will service the needs of AMD, “though will also offer an expanded roadmap of technologies to third-party customers,” and “AMD will continue to play a critical role in GlobalFoundries’ future success as its shareholder and also as its first and largest customer.”
 
AMD’s former facilities in Dresden, Germany will be renamed Fab 1 with Module 1 initially focused on production of high-performance 45-nm Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) technology, and a new Module 2 transitioning to 32-nm bulk silicon capabilities.

The company the company also plans to begin construction on a new state-of-the-art 32-nm (and smaller) manufacturing facility at the Luther Forest Technology Campus in Saratoga County, NY later this year. This new, $4.2 billion facility will be named Fab 2 and is expected to create approximately 1,400 new direct jobs and more than 5,000 indirect jobs in the region.

GlobalFoundries is jointly owned by AMD and investment company ATIC.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
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  • hellwig
    AMD didn't have the product catalog necessary for its own plants (they started off as a fab plant duplicating x86s for IBM after all). In the end, I think this will work out well for AMD. They can focus purely on design, and allow the new company to focus on fab. Plus, bringing in additional customers means faster tech advancement and more efficient throughput. I think this is a good sign for AMD.
    Reply
  • scarpa
    Don't know if spinning off your manufacturing facilities is good or bad, we'll have to live and see.
    Reply
  • PrangeWay
    From a cash flow persepective it's good. The debt they need for each equipment upgrade is no longer on AMD's books but Globals. It assures the viability and probably stock price of AMD proper very well. Though I don't know the chances of Global doing anything but breaking even?
    Reply
  • jkflipflop98
    The bitch about this industry is that you always have to keep investing and moving forwards. If you stop researching or spending billions on your fab, you're dead in the water.
    Reply
  • zodiacfml
    it is, because there is competition.
    Reply
  • neiroatopelcc
    This can only be a good thing I think. More people are involved in thinking ahead now, so likelyhood one of them has the right ideas for the future that comes to be the present is higher.
    Reply
  • roholidays1
    The good thing is that finally after a long period, the plant will be opened to US soil. The outsourcing was about to kill the ecconomy, and let people without jobs, while creating jobs for other 3rd world countries, like US workers don't need jobs...
    Reply
  • neiroatopelcc
    imo the best qualified people should get the jobs, instead of people from specific origins. Nationality is just an entry in your passport anyway. These days it doesn't matter if you're from the ukraine, brittain or brazil. If you speak english, german, spanish or french you can work anywhere. And if you're good at it, you should get the job instead of someone less qualified. That would perhaps make 'locals' more inclined to pay attention and try their best.

    ps. ofcourse it's annoying to potentially lose a job opportunity to an 'outlander', but the company benefits, and perhaps you could be the outlander. Eventually it's always annoying to be the loser, but someone has to if there aren't enough jobs for everyone. (not a problem in denmark. We don't have any unemployment to speak of)
    Reply