GlobalFoundries announced today that the United States Government, under the administration of Donald J. Trump, has signed a letter of intent with the U.S. Department of Commerce to advance next-generation silicon photonics technologies. Notably, GlobalFoundries will receive $300 million from the CHIPS Act fund, while the U.S. Government will acquire approximately a 1% equity stake in the company. As some may recall, GlobalFoundries ceased its efforts in leading-edge node research, development, and manufacturing just as the industry was transitioning to 7 nm. However, the company has since shifted its focus to other technologies, such as silicon photonics, which are becoming increasingly valuable in the era of AI expansion.

GlobalFoundries stated that this funding will be used to develop next-generation silicon photonics and advanced packaging, focusing on near-packaged optics (NPO), co-packaged optics (CPO), 3D hybrid bonding, and novel material development. The company recently introduced its SCALE (Silicon Photonics Co-Packaged Advanced Light Engine) platform, which supports 400 Gb/s package transfers with high energy efficiency. They plan to invest these R&D funds in their manufacturing facilities in Malta, New York, and Burlington, Vermont, fulfilling their commitment to develop manufacturing capabilities on U.S. soil.Several SCALE CPO and NPO customers provided statements for this announcement, including AMD, Broadcom, Cisco, Corning, Lumentum, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm. Many of these companies praised silicon photonics for helping with fast data movement by using light instead of copper, overcoming previous technological challenges as copper hits its limits. They also expressed satisfaction with the onshoring of U.S.-based technology, which strengthens the supply chain.