Even amidst a growing legal confrontation with TSMC, GlobalFoundries, a prominent semiconductor foundry, plans to go public by 2022 with an Initial Public Offering (IPO), according to CEO Thomas Caulfield. The proposed IPO would put GlobalFoundries on the map as a publicly traded business for the first time.
The company formed in 2009 after splitting from AMD's chip production line. After the division, GlobalFoundries established itself as a private business with fabrication facilities in Germany, Singapore, The United States, and China. In 2019, GlobalFoundries downsized its assets by selling projects like Avera Semiconductor in May and Photomask in August.
GlobalFoundries held a technology conference on September 24th in which the CEO unveiled new information about the coming IPO. According to semiconductor analyst Robert Maire who attended the conference, Caulfield reported $6 billion annual revenue with $550 million in free cash flow.
"It's about us coming of age and being a real vibrant business, and the way of proving that is as a publicly-traded company," Caulfield said to Wall Street Journal.
As of 2019, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi owns GlobalFoundries. Robert suggested the IPO filing may be due in part to a funding halt from the Abu Dhabi government, but this isn’t confirmed. But a successful IPO would help GlobalFoundries become more stable—independent of government funding.
