GlobalFoundries, Lockheed Martin Collaborate to Boost Resiliency of Semiconductor Chips

Lockheed Martin and GlobalFoundries (GF) have established a strategic collaboration to advance U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and innovation, and to increase the security, reliability, and resiliency of domestic supply chains for national security systems. The collaboration will explore critical needs in semiconductor innovation and secure manufacturing across a range of advanced and next-generation chip technologies, including 3D heterogeneous integration for optimized chip packaging that improves performance; silicon photonics for low-power and high-speed data transport; and gallium nitride on silicon to help chips work at higher temperatures.

The companies will leverage GF’s differentiated technology and manufacturing process to increase anti-fragility in microelectronics systems and supply chains. The companies will also work to develop a chiplet ecosystem to produce chips more rapidly and affordably.

The newly formed partnership comes one year after the formation of a GF/Department of Defense (DOD) agreement, whereby GF was federally funded $117 million via the Defense Production Act to provide a strategic supply of U.S.-made chips to DOD for national security systems. A partnership also announced last year provided $25 million in federal funding for GF and PsiQuantum to expand R&D in New York’s Capital Region and at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in Rome, N.Y., to manufacture and test photonic quantum computing technology. Those partners reacquainted in October 2022 when PsiQuantum signed a $22.5 million contract with the AFRL in Rome, N.Y., to formalize their partnership.