US to award GlobalFoundries $300 million to develop faster AI chip links

By Stephen Nellis and Harshita ‌Mary Varghese

July ​29 (Reuters) - GlobalFoundries ​said on Wednesday the U.S. government will award $300 million to the chipmaker to bolster research and development of silicon photonics technology ‌to power more efficient AI data centers.

The award is part of ⁠U.S. President Donald Trump's effort to direct CHIPS Act research funding toward critical semiconductor technologies ‌as Washington seeks to strengthen ‌its position in the global race with China.

The administration has previously committed $150 million for semiconductor manufacturing equipment and $2 billion for quantum computing.

Silicon photonics uses ​light instead of electrical signals to move data between chips, enabling higher bandwidth and lower power consumption for AI systems.

The funding from the U.S. ⁠Department of Commerce is also aimed at advancing co-packaged optics, a technology that integrates silicon photonics directly ​alongside AI processors to further boost data-transfer speeds and energy efficiency.

Much of the supply chain for silicon photonics and advanced optical ​packaging is currently concentrated outside the United ‌States, with major manufacturers including Taiwan's TSMC and Israel's Tower Semiconductor.

The $300 million announced on Wednesday will complement a previous $1.5 billion ⁠awarded to GlobalFoundries in 2024 to build out factories in Malta, New York and Burlington, Vermont.

Chief Technology Officer Gregg Bartlett told Reuters in an interview that the new ⁠funding will power research on new materials and techniques that will be used in those ​facilities to produce and package optical components alongside the chips GlobalFoundries already makes.

"To have one company with end-to-end service, starting with a bare silicon wafer and being able to ‌ship a known good and tested optical module in the United States, we think that's a unique capability for us," ‌Bartlett said.

GlobalFoundries said it is targeting to boost data transfer speeds to 400 gigabits ⁠per second and up to ‌five times greater energy ​efficiency than current-generation implementations.

(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Vijay Kishore and ‌Aurora Ellis)

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