GlobalFoundries announced a significant expansion of its silicon photonics leadership with the acquisition of Singapore-based Advanced Micro Foundry, representing one of the company’s most important moves to date in strengthening its global manufacturing footprint and accelerating its AI infrastructure portfolio. The transaction positions GlobalFoundries as the largest pure-play silicon photonics foundry by revenue and further deepens the company’s reach across data center, communications, computing, automotive, and sensing applications.
The acquisition brings together AMF’s manufacturing assets, intellectual property, and technical expertise with GF’s existing global operations. AMF’s 15-year track record in silicon photonics manufacturing on its 200mm platform will now support an expanded product roadmap that spans long-haul optical communications, LiDAR, quantum computing, and high-performance data transfer solutions. GlobalFoundries plans to scale AMF’s platform to 300mm in Singapore as customer demand for advanced photonics solutions continues to rise.
As the limits of copper connectivity become more pronounced within data centers, silicon photonics continues to emerge as a core enabling technology that supports faster, more energy-efficient communication between servers and across AI workloads. The acquisition strengthens GlobalFoundries’ ability to meet this global need by expanding its U.S. and Singapore manufacturing capabilities, enhancing supply chain resilience, and allowing customers to adopt secure solutions from multiple regions.
In conjunction with the acquisition, GlobalFoundries will establish a silicon photonics center of excellence in Singapore. The new R&D hub will collaborate with Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology, and Research to develop next-generation materials optimized for ultra-fast data transfer at speeds of up to 400Gbps. This work is expected to advance GF’s innovation roadmap and broaden the company’s portfolio of high-performance, secure data transfer solutions.
The companies emphasized their shared vision for innovation and customer-centric technology development, noting that the combined portfolio will support a broader array of markets, including data centers, advanced telecom networks, automotive technologies and quantum computing.
KEY QUOTES:
“Silicon photonics technology is essential for AI infrastructure. As data moves faster and workloads grow more complex, the ability to move information with greater speed, precision and power efficiency is now fundamental to AI datacenters and advanced telecom networks. Acquiring AMF enables GF to deliver an expanded, and differentiated, decade-long roadmap for pluggable transceivers and co-packaged optics, while accelerating growth of photonics into adjacent markets such as automotive and quantum computing.”
Tim Breen, CEO of GF
“AMF and GF share a vision of innovation and close customer partnerships to deliver differentiated solutions. With complementary technology portfolios, we are proud to join forces with a trusted manufacturer with global reach, and together, look forward to advancing silicon photonics technology for a broader range of markets and customers.”
Jagadish CV, CEO of AMF
