GlobalFoundries Gets $300M for Silicon Photonics

GlobalFoundries secures $300 million in CHIPS Act funding to advance silicon photonics and packaging through a U.S. government partnership.

GlobalFoundries announced on July 29, 2026, that the U.S. Department of Commerce under the Trump administration signed a letter of intent to advance silicon photonics. The company will receive $300 million from the CHIPS Act fund, while the U.S. Government acquires a 1% equity stake. Following its exit from leading-edge 7 nm node development, GlobalFoundries pivoted to silicon photonics, which uses light instead of copper for data. The funding supports R&D in Malta, New York, and Burlington, Vermont, focusing on near-packaged optics, co-packaged optics, 3D hybrid bonding, and novel materials. GlobalFoundries also introduced its SCALE platform, supporting 400 Gb/s transfers for customers including AMD, Broadcom, Cisco, Corning, Lumentum, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm.