AMD is planning a significant return to establishing new manufacturing ties with its former silicon manufacturing venture, which it sold back in 2008. According to recent reports, AMD intends to collaborate with GlobalFoundries for new Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) for the next-generation Instinct MI500 series of AI accelerators. CPO technology will help AMD remain competitive in the AI data center space, where signal transfer is limited by traditional copper-based wiring. By harnessing the power and speed of light, CPO technology will enable data transfer between multiple nodes, and even multiple facilities, without the speed loss and increased latency associated with copper-based connections. Consequently, AMD is investing considerable effort to secure Photonics Integrated Circuit (PIC) manufacturing with its former partner, GlobalFoundries, which will handle PIC manufacturing, while the actual packaging will be managed by ASE to finalize the CPO design. This approach allows AMD to leverage the strengths of both companies, likely resulting in the best solution for its systems next year.

The Instinct MI500 series of AI accelerators is scheduled for release in 2027, as this year's lineup focuses on the Instinct MI400 series, which includes multiple SKUs for AI and HPC workloads. While these designs are already among the industry's leading AI accelerators, AMD aims to enhance performance further with the 2027 release using CPO technology. This will significantly contribute to delivering a solution that uses less power and offers much higher overall bandwidth compared to traditional copper data transfers. However, AMD is not alone in this CPO push. NVIDIA is also collaborating with semiconductor makers to develop a CPO system for "Vera Rubin," particularly the "Rubin Ultra" variant.Interestingly, GlobalFoundries was originally AMD's silicon manufacturing unit. However, AMD sold GlobalFoundries in 2008 and completely divested from the company in 2012. Since then, GlobalFoundries has operated independently, providing AMD with some of the 14 nm and 12 nm silicon for its chips. However, as GlobalFoundries exited the race for the smallest transistors, the company has been investing in other solutions like Silicon Photonics. With the AI era demanding fast data transfer, AMD is once again collaborating with its old partner to use this technology in its best chips, which we will see next year.