Globalfoundries, one of the world's top contract chip manufacturers, is trying to tap the US government's ambitions to disentangle the semiconductor supply chain from Asia and keep its technology lead over China and other countries. The firm said it agreed to purchase a large parcel of land adjacent to its most advanced US fab, as it looks to stay ahead of customer demand.
The Santa Clara, California-based company said it hammered out a contract giving it the right to purchase the property sometime in the future. Globalfoundries, the largest contract chip maker in the US, said the portion of land could be used to build out its most advanced US plant located in upstate New York. The production plant, Fab 8, is where it fills orders for chips based its highest-end 12-nanometer and 14-nanometer nodes for others.
该公司表示，迄今为止，它已向铸造厂投资了超过130亿美元。它还投资了20亿美元用于升级其其他美国工厂，包括它运行的前IBM工厂。
为成百上千的Globalfoundries,使得芯片customers from Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom to Skyworks and Qualcomm, said how it proceeds with the property will depend on demand from its customers, including defense and aerospace contractors in the US. But the fallout from the novel coronavirus and uncertainty around the ongoing trade war with China has clouded 2020 forecasts for chip sales, industry analysts say.
一年多以前，GlobalFoundries表示，面对成本高涨和投资回报率的担忧，它停止了其7纳米节点的发展。
但是，在美国政府值得信赖的铸造计划中，它还已经制造了少量军事级处理器和其他筹码。这些芯片组装的植物长期以来一直被视为国防部供应链最脆弱的联系之一。GlobalFoundries根据严格的规则运行Fabs，以防止芯片被篡改，并防止蓝图落入错误的手中。
但是，仍必须从亚洲合同芯片供应商中进口许多最先进的芯片，这些筹码销量将为消费电子设备推出数亿筹码。这引发了有关可能的供应问题以及国防部在美国最先进的生产节点上获得芯片的疑问。飞机，卫星，火箭和其他系统中需要先进的芯片，以传达和接合敌人的目标。
Concerns about the fragility of the global electronics supply chain has deepened in recent years. The US semiconductor industry has been pushing for federal funding to keep it ahead of China, which is spending billions of dollars to nurture domestic production of chips and close its technology gap with the US. China’s push to reduce its dependence on US chips has been speeding up as a result of bitter trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.
上个月，美国政府从TSMC和其他供应商那里封锁了向华为的筹码，这表明它正在试图从中国搏斗全球供应链。
致命病毒加剧了这些关注，这种病毒阻碍了中国和该地区其他国家的ICS的生产（包括包装和测试操作）。该病毒还延迟了物流运营，航空公司取消了用于渡过全球范围的全球范围飞行。分析人士说，后果还强调了美国半导体行业对遥远供应链的严重依赖。
该公司高级副总裁罗恩·桑普森（Ron Sampson）美国工厂的运营在一份声明中说，购买土地的交易为未来增长提供了“额外的灵活性，可以扩大我们的足迹”。
The company is also preparing for a boost to its business as the US government moves to invest in US chip manufacturing, which has been in steep decline for several decades.
Last month, both houses of Congress proposed bills to invest billions of dollars in funding to rebuild US chip manufacturing that has been depleted over the last several decades, as the chip industry's center of gravity has shifted to Asia. If the proposed act is passed, it would roll out up to $10 billion fund for federal grants to match state and other subsidies to encourage chip manufacturers to build more advanced foundries in the US.
该法律还将在研发上投资高达120亿美元的资金。其他刺激资金将集中在促进IC包装，测试和其他步骤中的复杂过程中，将芯片返回到美国。该法案还提出，向国防部授予绿灯，以根据《国防生产法》的资金“增强国内半导体生产能力”。
TSMC拥有超过50％的按订单芯片服务的市场，它能够根据世界上7纳米的节点制作最先进的芯片。它为世界顶级芯片设计师提供服务，包括苹果，Nvidia，Qualcomm，Broadcom和Xilinx。英特尔还在美国运营最先进的植物，在那里它为竞争对手的TSMC建造了10纳米芯片。但是，这家硅谷巨头并不是为他人建造筹码的业务。
TSMC, which is the world's largest contract chip vendor by overall sales, said last month that it plans to construct its latest production plant in the US at an estimated cost of $12 billion. The fab is projected to start supplying 5-nanometer processors by 2024, TSMC said.
The contract manufacturer last year said it plans to start large-scale production of chips based on its 5-nanometer node at its most advanced fabs by the second half of 2020. Intel of the US and Samsung Electronics of South Korea have been struggling to close the gap.
Globalfoundries holds the second largest share of the total foundry business behind TSMC.
