GlobalFoundries is investing $ 1,4 billion this year to ramp up production at three plants in the United States, Singapore and Germany as global semiconductor shortages have boosted demand. The company, which is a division of the Saudi state fund Mubadala, may also postpone its initial public offering (IPO) to the end of 2021 – previously the IPO was planned in late 2022 or early 2023.

GlobalFoundries projects revenue growth of 9-10% this year, up from $ 5,7 billion last year. Let’s remind: now manufacturers are faced with a global shortage of chips, which leads to delays in the production of a wide variety of devices, including cars.

“The introduction of a number of technologies, which under normal conditions would take 10 years, happened in one year in 2020 due to the situation with COVID-19″, – Thomas Caulfield, CEO of GlobalFoundries, told Reuters. Before the pandemic, the semiconductor industry was projected to grow by 5% over the next 5 years, but today these figures are twice as high.

GlobalFoundries said that $ 1,4 billion, which will be evenly invested in expanding production at its factories in Dresden (Germany), Malta (New York) and Singapore, will significantly expand production in 2022 at rates ranging from 12 nm to 90 nm. Roughly a third of the investment will come from customers looking to reserve capacity for the next few years. GlobalFoundries expects its production to grow 13% this year and 2022% in 20.

If demand continues to grow, GlobalFoundries could build a new plant near its Malta, New York facility – last year the company entered into an option agreement to purchase about 27 hectares of land. But the decision and speed of implementation of the project will largely depend on the funding by the US Congress of a package of measures to stimulate the production of chips in the United States, known as the “Chips Act”, approved last year.