GlobalFoundries to Spend Billions: Doubling Fab 8, Creating New Fab in NY
anandtech.com> Last week it was rumored that Intel was seeking to acquire GF for $30 billion, however today GF announced a complete logo change and rebranding of the business, which doesn’t tend to occur if a company is in the process of acquisition talks. Alongside this, GF is expected to bring forward its Initial Public Offering (IPO) from 2022 to late 2021. The company is currently owned wholly by the Emerati state holding company Mubadala, and the IPO is on the back of some growth of GF in light of the high semiconductor demand environment. GlobalFoundries expects 2021 revenue to be around $6.2 billion, a +9% growth over 2020.
Intel is talking to Mubadala, not GF. I am not even sure GF could say no if Intel has a decent price offering.
And media suggest Mubadala are targeting an $20B to $30B valuation IPO. GF has been unloading their non-foundry business since 2019, from photomask to ASIC division. So from a pure foundry perspective it is a very decent prospect for acquisition. I wonder if TSMC will also make an offer given they are looking at both Singapore and US for expansion.
Intel has no presence as a foundry-as-a-service, TSMC is the market leader. I can just about understand Intel getting away with an acquisition in this space, TSMC would be a really difficult sell to regulators.
Why NY of all states?
I'm not sure how relevant it is today but IIRC a couple of NY schools were in the initial partnership designed by a US gov initiative (SEMATECH) to make US-based semiconductors companies more competitive in the 1980s when Japanese companies started surpassing the US in semiconductor advancements
Probably to keep things nearby. Their HQ and their US fabs are all clustered around upstate and VT.