GlobalFoundries to Build TSMC's AI Packaging Parts in New York Under $2B Deal

GlobalFoundries will produce silicon interposers for TSMC's CoWoS-S advanced packaging at its Malta, New York fab under a five-year agreement valued at $2 billion. The interposers link logic chiplets to HBM stacks in AI and HPC processors, and volume production is scheduled for the first half of 2028, creating a US source for a component that has recently been a packaging bottleneck.

Key Takeaways

GlobalFoundries will produce silicon interposers for TSMC's CoWoS-S advanced packaging at its Malta, New York fab under a five-year agreement valued at $2 billion.
The interposers link logic chiplets to HBM stacks in AI and HPC processors, and volume production is scheduled for the first half of 2028, creating a US source for a component that has recently been a packaging bottleneck.

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GlobalFoundries and TSMC have signed a five-year manufacturing agreement worth $2 billion under which GlobalFoundries will produce silicon interposers for TSMC's CoWoS-S advanced packaging. Production will be expanded at GlobalFoundries' fab in Malta, New York, and volume ramp-up is scheduled for the first half of 2028 — creating a US source for a component that has recently been one of the bottlenecks in AI chip manufacturing.

Interposers are custom pieces of silicon that provide high-density connections between logic chiplets and high-bandwidth memory stacks, the element that makes complex multi-die processors for AI and high-performance computing possible. Their design depends on the number, dimensions and placement of chiplets and HBM stacks, as well as power delivery and embedded deep trench capacitors. Very large interposers also exceed the maximum lithographic reticle size and must be 'stitched', and it remains to be seen how well GlobalFoundries will handle stitching for extra-large system-in-packages.

'By providing manufacturing service using GF's trusted U.S. manufacturing footprint, we are creating a secure, scalable source of essential advanced-packaging elements that will help customers accelerate innovation and strengthen the semiconductor supply chain,' said Ed Kaste, senior vice president of CMOS Business at GlobalFoundries. The agreement provides a framework for additional expansion depending on demand, the companies said. GlobalFoundries shares gained as much as 7% after the announcement.

GlobalFoundries will not be a conventional TSMC supplier but a subcontractor producing multiple customer-specific interposer designs rather than a standardised component. That requires compatibility between its design rules, manufacturing processes and qualification procedures — and raises questions about ownership and protection of intellectual property, since interposer layouts may incorporate technologies specific to TSMC and its customers.

The deal marks a return to the most advanced AI chip business for GlobalFoundries, albeit indirectly: the company abandoned leading-edge process development in 2018 and can no longer make cutting-edge logic dies, but it will now make a key element of TSMC's US packaging chain. TSMC plans to introduce CoWoS and 3D-IC packaging in Arizona before 2029 and has signed a 10-year agreement with Amkor, which is building an advanced packaging plant in Peoria, Arizona, scheduled to start production in early 2028. The result could be a largely domestic US supply chain — logic dies from Arizona, interposers from New York, packaging and testing in Arizona. Unresolved: how CoWoS assembly will be divided between TSMC and Amkor, whether GlobalFoundries' interposers will be used in Arizona at all, and any figures for volumes, capital spending and the breakdown of the $2 billion. HBM stacks would still come from Asia for now.