GlobalFoundries Gets $300M CHIPS Award Boost From Trump Administration — NVDA's Jensen Huang Calls Silicon Photonics 'Essential' To AI Future

The funding aims to advance U.S. research into technologies underpinning AI infrastructure, including next-generation optical materials, wafer technologies, and advanced packaging.

• GlobalFoundries said the funding would accelerate development of next-generation silicon photonics technologies.
• CEO Tim Breen said the company is expanding its silicon photonics capabilities by building on its portfolio of qualified photonic devices, 3D hybrid bonding technology, and more.
• Under a separate agreement, the U.S. Department of Commerce will receive equity representing approximately 1% of GlobalFoundries.

Shares of GlobalFoundries Inc. (GFS) were in focus on Wednesday after the company announced that it had signed a letter of intent with the U.S. Department of Commerce for a proposed $300 million CHIPS Research and Development award.

The funding is aimed at advancing U.S. research into technologies that underpin AI infrastructure, including next-generation optical materials, wafer technologies, and advanced packaging.

GlobalFoundries shares were up nearly 10% in Wednesday’s pre-market trade.

GFS Touts AI Infrastructure Push

GlobalFoundries said the proposed award would accelerate development of next-generation silicon photonics technologies.

“As we accelerate development of next-generation optical materials and co-packaged optics, GF is building on our already qualified portfolio of photonic devices, proven 3D hybrid bonding and advanced packaging expertise,” said GlobalFoundries CEO Tim Breen.

The effort builds on the company's recently unveiled SCALE silicon photonics platform, which targets data transfer speeds of up to 400 gigabits per second while improving energy efficiency by fivefold compared with current-generation implementations.

“With today’s compute supply chain investments, the Trump Administration is accelerating America’s innovation engine,” said Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick.

Under a separate agreement, the U.S. Department of Commerce will receive equity representing approximately 1% of GlobalFoundries.

NVDA, AMD, MSFT And Others Back Silicon Photonics

The announcement comes as chipmakers increasingly focus on moving data more efficiently between AI processors, with optical interconnects viewed as the next major upgrade for hyperscale AI clusters.

The $300 million award to GlobalFoundries drew endorsements from several major AI and semiconductor companies, including Nvidia Corp. (NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), and Meta Platforms Inc. (META), as well as several other semiconductor and networking companies.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called silicon photonics "essential" to rebuilding U.S. AI supply chains, while AMD CTO Mark Papermaster said the technology will be critical for delivering the bandwidth, energy efficiency and connectivity needed by next-generation AI clusters.

“Rebuilding our supply chains is critical to the new industrial revolution. Scaling US manufacturing requires advances across chips, networking, optics, software, and manufacturing. Silicon photonics is essential to that future, and GlobalFoundries brings the manufacturing expertise to help make it real in the United States,” Huang said.

Why Silicon Photonics Matters

Silicon photonics transmits data using light rather than electrical signals, enabling higher bandwidth, lower power consumption, and greater efficiency as AI models and data center workloads become increasingly demanding.

GlobalFoundries said its silicon photonics platform already supports today's pluggable optical interconnects and is designed to help the industry transition toward NPO and CPO, technologies expected to play a key role in next-generation AI infrastructure.

What Retail Investors Think Of GFS Stock

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits around GlobalFoundries trended in the ‘neutral’ territory at the time of writing.

One bullish user said their only regret is not having enough cash to invest more in GlobalFoundries.

View this Stocktwits post

GFS stock is up 40% year-to-date and 21% over the past 12 months. The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) is up 100% over the past 12 months, while the iShares Russell Mid-Cap ETF (IWR) is up 17%.

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