AMD Foundry Spinoff Named GlobalFoundries

In October 2008, AMD announced that it’d be ditching the actual fabrication of its chip technology, and will be spinning off its factories to an outside company.

At the time of the announcement, AMD CEO Dirk Meyer said in a statement that the decision to spin off chip making was about improving finances and creating a company with a tightened focus. The company hoped that rethinking the structure of the company will give AMD a second wind in competing against rival, Intel.

Prior to today, the chipmaking spinoff was called simply the Foundry Company. Now, after months of paper work, the new company has its formal name, and it’s called the slightly more inspired GlobalFoundries.

Just because GlobalFoundries is now a separate entity doesn’t mean that it’ll be making chips for Intel or Nvidia -- at least not in the immediate future. GlobalFoundries said in a press release that it will service the needs of AMD, “though will also offer an expanded roadmap of technologies to third-party customers,” and “AMD will continue to play a critical role in GlobalFoundries’ future success as its shareholder and also as its first and largest customer.”
 
AMD’s former facilities in Dresden, Germany will be renamed Fab 1 with Module 1 initially focused on production of high-performance 45-nm Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) technology, and a new Module 2 transitioning to 32-nm bulk silicon capabilities.

The company the company also plans to begin construction on a new state-of-the-art 32-nm (and smaller) manufacturing facility at the Luther Forest Technology Campus in Saratoga County, NY later this year. This new, $4.2 billion facility will be named Fab 2 and is expected to create approximately 1,400 new direct jobs and more than 5,000 indirect jobs in the region.

GlobalFoundries is jointly owned by AMD and investment company ATIC.