GlobalFoundries Makes Silicon Photonics Play, Acquires Advanced Micro Foundry
SINGAPORE, Nov. 19, 2025 — GlobalFoundries (GF) has acquired Advanced Micro Foundry (AMF), a Singapore-based silicon photonics foundry. The move strengthens GF’s footprint in silicon photonics and expand its AI infrastructure portfolio.
In an announcement, GF said that the acquisition, for which terms were not announced, will bring together the manufacturing assets, intellectual property, and experience of AMF with its own existing resources to form what it calls the largest silicon photonics pure-play foundry by revenue. Specifically, GF said it will leverage AMF's manufacturing expertise to address demands in long-haul optical communications, computing, lidar, and sensing, on AMF's 200-mm platform in Singapore, with plans to scale to 300 mm as market needs grow. AMF was spun off from Singapore's public sector R&D agency, the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR)'s Institute for Microelectronics in 2017.
In line with the acquisition, GlobalFoundries will establish a silicon R&D center of excellence in Singapore, through a partnership with A*STAR. Work done through this partnership will focus on enhancing next generation materials for ultrafast data transfer at speeds of up to 400 Gbps. GF said these materials will advance the company’s silicon photonics platform and provide high-performance, secure data transfer solutions.
On top of the acquisition announcement, GlobalFoundries also released details specific to its partnership with A*STAR, with which the company established a memorandum of understanding earlier this year. A*STAR and GF are now entering into a master research collaboration agreement focused on advanced silicon photonics. The work builds on close two decades of Singapore's national investment and capability development at A*STAR, said Beh Kian Teik, the agency's CEO.
GF has spent billions already this year, building and upgrading existing facilities in the U.S; In June, it revealed a planned $16 billion investment in sites in New York and Vermont, following plans for a $700 million facility in Malta, N.Y. It additionally added to its own capabilities through collaborations with Corning to develop fiber connector solutions, and with Applied Materials for a state-of-the-art waveguide fabrication facility. Both of these partnerships will address the emerging demand for photonics solutions to AI applications.
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