The Donald Trump administration is pushing chip companies to expand manufacturing in the U.S.

  • Japan and the U.S. are weighing a major semiconductor investment.
  • The potential facility would expand GlobalFoundries’ U.S. manufacturing footprint and logic-chip capacity.
  • GFS has gained more than 23% this year.

GlobalFoundries shares rose over 2% in premarket trading on Thursday after Nikkei reported that Japan and the U.S. are discussing a new semiconductor manufacturing project that could be operated by the U.S.-based foundry.

Japan, U.S. Discuss New Chip Plant

Japan and the U.S. are discussing a semiconductor plant in the U.S. that could represent one of Japan’s investments under a $550 billion investment agreement with Washington, Nikkei reported, citing officials familiar with the negotiations.

The project could cost between 2 trillion yen and 3 trillion yen ($12.8 billion-$19.3 billion), with GlobalFoundries expected to operate the facility and manufacture logic semiconductors.  

The proposed project would mark an expansion of Japan’s commitments under the tariff agreement beyond power projects and into technology and manufacturing.

Trump Pushes U.S. Chip Manufacturing

The Donald Trump administration is pushing local and foreign semiconductor companies to expand manufacturing in the U.S., seeking to reduce reliance on overseas production.

TSMC has committed to investing $265 billion in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and packaging, including building 12 facilities in Arizona.  

Other major chipmakers are also expanding their U.S. footprints. Samsung has been building advanced semiconductor facilities in Texas, while Intel is expanding its manufacturing operations in Arizona and Ohio. Micron is also investing heavily in U.S. memory manufacturing, with plans to expand domestic capacity.

The administration has used tariffs, trade negotiations and federal support to encourage more semiconductor production domestically. In January, Trump imposed a 25% tariff on certain advanced computing chips, while exempting imports that support U.S. technology supply chains and domestic manufacturing.  

GlobalFoundries Catalysts, Retail View

For GlobalFoundries, the potential plant would add to a growing list of U.S.-focused manufacturing and technology initiatives.

The company recently finalized a $375 million U.S. Commerce Department award to accelerate its quantum semiconductor business and domestic manufacturing capabilities.   

It also recently partnered with Monolithic Power Systems to manufacture high-performance power solutions and began shipping U.S.-manufactured GaN chips with Navitas Semiconductor.  

On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment for GFS was ‘bullish,’ although some traders were frustrated with its stock performance.

“$GFS why the continuous fall. Seems a much better company now, with much better prospects, than 2 years ago, when it was essentially the same price,” said a trader.

Year to date, GFS stock is up over 23%.

 

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