Tuesday, February 19th 2019
GlobalFoundries Looking for Buyers, Samsung and SK Hynix Seem Interested
GlobalFoundries is looking to be sold lock-stock-and-barrel by its investors, after heavily downsizing and parting with some of its Singapore-based assets recently. Once promising to lead the market with 7 nm and 5 nm advancements, the company crashed out of the sub-10 nm race, making AMD, its biggest customer, look for 7 nm supplies from TSMC. GlobalFoundries is the world's third largest semiconductor foundry service provider, with an 8.4 percent market share, behind TSMC and Samsung. Intel doesn't offer manufacturing services, as its fabs are fully dedicated to manufacturing its own products.
GlobalFoundries's main investor is Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Technology, which holds a 90 percent stake in the company. Korean semiconductor companies Samsung and SK Hynix are reportedly in the foray to buy out GlobalFoundries, as it would give them a turnkey presence in the US, with its Upstate New York facilities. The company is unlikely to entertain bids from Chinese companies, as CFIUS would likely block the sale. "Global Foundries is unlikely to be bought by a Chinese company such as SMIC in that the U.S. government is keeping China in check in various industries," said an industry insider, adding, "The most potential candidates include South Korean companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, and Samsung Electronics can increase its share in the market to 23 percent at once if it takes over Global Foundries."
Source:
Business Korea
GlobalFoundries's main investor is Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Technology, which holds a 90 percent stake in the company. Korean semiconductor companies Samsung and SK Hynix are reportedly in the foray to buy out GlobalFoundries, as it would give them a turnkey presence in the US, with its Upstate New York facilities. The company is unlikely to entertain bids from Chinese companies, as CFIUS would likely block the sale. "Global Foundries is unlikely to be bought by a Chinese company such as SMIC in that the U.S. government is keeping China in check in various industries," said an industry insider, adding, "The most potential candidates include South Korean companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, and Samsung Electronics can increase its share in the market to 23 percent at once if it takes over Global Foundries."
15 Comments on GlobalFoundries Looking for Buyers, Samsung and SK Hynix Seem Interested
This is rather disconcerting, as it means even more consolidation/less competition in an already tiny business. It's not good news for fabless chip makers, which in reality, is most chip makers apart from Intel these days. Let's hope some third party decides to buy them, so Global Foundries can stay independent.
Agree on the rest.
- Synaptics -> www.synaptics.com/company/news/AS3xx
- Shanghai Fudan
- Rockchip
So far, and there was 20 production tapeouts at the end of 2018.
I guess Micron also has some fabs and so does Hynix and a few others, but those are very specialised and can't make general purpose SoCs for example.
It also makes the fact that GloFo is up for sale, very attractive to a lot of players.