GlobalFoundries completes integration of Chartered Semi

IDG News Service - GlobalFoundries has completed the integration of Chartered Semiconductor and the two companies now operate as a single entity, GlobalFoundries' CEO said Wednesday.

Absorbing Chartered Semiconductor's operations will help GlobalFoundries challenge Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s (TSMC's) dominance of the contract chip manufacturing industry.

Formerly the manufacturing arm of Advanced Micro Devices, GlobalFoundries is a joint venture between AMD and Abu Dhabi's Advanced Technology Investment Co. (ATIC), which last month acquired Singaporean contract chip maker Chartered Semiconductor in a deal worth S$5.6 billion (US$4 billion). ATIC-owned Chartered now operates as part of GlobalFoundries and its former CEO Chia Song Hwee serves as GlobalFoundries' chief operating officer.

"This is truly a historic day for us," said Doug Grose, CEO of GlobalFoundries, during a press briefing at the company's newly acquired Fab 2 manufacturing plant in Singapore.

The Chartered deal helps GlobalFoundries by boosting its manufacturing capacity and brings in 150 customers.

To compete against TSMC, GlobalFoundries needs access to cutting-edge process technology -- which it inherits from AMD -- and greater manufacturing capacity to meet customer demand for chips that are produced with these technologies. The Chartered deal gives GlobalFoundries six more plants: five that use 200-millimeter silicon wafers and one that uses 300-millimeter wafers. GlobalFoundries has a 300mm manufacturing complex in Dresden, Germany, and another 300mm plant under construction in Saratoga, New York.

In addition, GlobalFoundries will expand the production capacity of its 300mm plants in Dresden and Singapore, Grose said, noting the company will more than double its total manufacturing capacity by 2014.