GlobalFoundries (NASDAQ:GFS) shares climbed 11% on Wednesday after the semiconductor manufacturer announced a letter of intent with the U.S. Department of Commerce for a $300 million award to accelerate the development of next-generation silicon photonics technology.
The funding, provided through the Department’s CHIPS Research and Development Office, is intended to support research into advanced optical materials, wafer technologies and packaging solutions that will strengthen U.S. leadership in technologies critical to artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Funding Targets Next-Generation AI Infrastructure
Silicon photonics is expected to play a key role in future AI data centres by enabling information to be transmitted using light instead of electrical signals, delivering significantly higher bandwidth while reducing energy consumption.
The government award will help GlobalFoundries accelerate the development of advanced silicon photonics wafer technologies, new optical materials and cutting-edge packaging techniques, including 3D hybrid bonding.
The investment will also support the rollout of near-packaged and co-packaged optics through the company’s recently introduced SCALE platform, which targets data transmission speeds of 400Gb/s and up to five times greater energy efficiency than current-generation technologies.
Commerce Department to Receive Equity Stake
Alongside the funding agreement, the U.S. Department of Commerce will receive an equity interest in GlobalFoundries representing approximately 1% ownership based on Wednesday’s share structure.
The collaboration is designed to strengthen domestic semiconductor capabilities while supporting long-term research and manufacturing within the United States.
Investment Supports U.S. Manufacturing Expansion
The project will build on GlobalFoundries’ existing operations in Malta, New York, and Burlington, Vermont, helping accelerate a U.S.-based pathway to high-volume silicon photonics manufacturing.
Chief Executive Officer Tim Breen said: “Silicon photonics is essential to AI infrastructure. GlobalFoundries has spent more than a decade building the technology, footprint and ecosystem to lead this transition, and we have the proven manufacturing foundation to scale it — in the United States — accelerating technology leadership for generations to come.”
Major Technology Companies Back Development
GlobalFoundries is collaborating with a broad range of technology leaders to advance next-generation silicon photonics solutions.
Its customer and development ecosystem includes AMD, Broadcom, Cisco, Corning, Lumentum, Marvell, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA and Qualcomm, with the aim of ensuring future AI architectures and optical networking technologies are supported by research and manufacturing based in the United States.
Global Foundries stock price
