Computing

GlobalFoundries Breaks Ground on a $10 Billion New York Chip Fab Paid for by Japan

The new Malta fab is the first of two planned under a U.S.-Japan deal worth up to $21 billion. It targets cars, industry and connected devices, not leading-edge AI processors, and is due online in 2029.

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GlobalFoundries Breaks Ground on a $10 Billion New York Chip Fab Paid for by Japan
Pixabay — Pixabay Content License

GlobalFoundries broke ground on November 13 on a new 300mm chip factory at its Malta, New York, campus, the first of two fabs funded under a U.S.-Japan initiative worth up to $21 billion, the company said. The first plant will cost about $10 billion and is expected to come online in 2029.

Close-up of an integrated circuit chip on a circuit board

Photo: Pixabay. Image is illustrative.

"Today, we're putting shovels in the ground and turning an ambitious partnership into reality," GlobalFoundries CEO Tim Breen said in Gov. Kathy Hochul's announcement. "This first-of-its-kind initiative brings together the strengths of the United States, Japan and GF to expand trusted semiconductor manufacturing at a scale that matters."

The deal at a glance

Item Detail
Company GlobalFoundries (Nasdaq: GFS)
Site Malta, Saratoga County, New York
New fab Fab 8.2, about 386,000 sq. ft. of cleanroom
First fab cost About $10 billion
Total initiative Up to $21 billion, funded by Japan
New York incentives $570 million ($535M tax credits, $35M grants)
Capacity About 900,000 300mm wafers a year per fab
Online 2029 (first fab)
Target markets Automotive, industrial, connected infrastructure

Sources: GlobalFoundries; Office of the Governor of New York.

How the money works

The financing is unusual. Under the arrangement GlobalFoundries announced on October 14, Japan provides the investment while GlobalFoundries acts as "technology provider and operator" for two new fabs. The company said the initiative was enabled by President Trump's trade and investment agreement with Japan.

That agreement, struck in 2025, gave Japan lower U.S. tariffs in exchange for $550 billion of investment in American industry, the Times Union reported via Yahoo News. At an earlier event in Malta, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the deal would give the U.S. government a 7% stake in GlobalFoundries, which he valued at about $2 billion, and half of the cash-flow profits from the $21 billion investment, according to the same report.

New York is adding $535 million in "100% performance-based" Green CHIPS tax credits and $35 million in grants for workforce and infrastructure, the governor's office said. GlobalFoundries has pledged $60 million in direct community investments, onsite or nearby childcare, a project labor agreement for construction and a commitment to hire local suppliers and workers.

Capacity and jobs

Each new fab is expected to add about 900,000 300mm wafers of annual capacity when fully running, GlobalFoundries said. The existing Malta fab processes about 400,000 wafers a year, Spectrum News reported, so the first new fab alone would more than triple the site's output.

The governor's office framed the fab as part of a $12.3 billion multi-phase expansion that also includes upgrades to existing facilities and a new Advanced Packaging and Photonics Center.

Job figures vary slightly by source. GlobalFoundries says the two-fab plan will create about 27,000 construction and ecosystem jobs and "more than 1,000" high-skilled manufacturing jobs. Hochul's office puts manufacturing jobs at "more than 1,100." No timeline was given for the second fab, Spectrum News reported.

Why it matters

GlobalFoundries makes what the industry calls foundational or mature-node chips: power management, radio, microcontroller and sensor chips used in cars, factories and networking gear. These are not the leading-edge processors that train AI models, but they sit inside nearly every AI server, electric vehicle and data-center power system.

Shortages of these chips stalled car plants earlier in the decade, and the sector is tight again. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon told investors on November 12 that chips are in an "extreme shortage," with the industry short on wafers, substrate and assembly capacity, 24/7 Wall St. reported.

The financing model may matter as much as the factory. Instead of relying on U.S. CHIPS Act grants alone, the project uses foreign investment pledged under a trade deal, with the U.S. government taking equity and a profit share. If it works, it could become a template for other projects funded through the Japan agreement.

Sen. Charles Schumer, who pushed the CHIPS and Science Act, said GlobalFoundries had promised a second Malta fab if Congress created federal chip incentives. "We both took our promises seriously, and now here we are," he said in the governor's release.

Open questions

  • Timing. The first fab is due in 2029. Building a fab on schedule is hard, and tool lead times are long across the industry.
  • The second fab. Funding of about $10 billion is described, but no start date has been announced.
  • Government stake. Details of the reported 7% U.S. stake and profit share have been described by officials but not laid out in GlobalFoundries' groundbreaking release.
  • The CHIPS tax credit. The federal semiconductor manufacturing credit expires at the end of 2026 unless Congress acts, though projects already under construction can still claim it, according to The National News Desk.

What to watch

Watch for a construction schedule and customer commitments for Fab 8.2, details on the U.S. equity stake in GlobalFoundries' filings, and whether other projects under the U.S.-Japan agreement follow the same operator model.

More coverage is on our Computing hub.

How we reported this

We read the governor's November 13 release in full and checked it against GlobalFoundries' groundbreaking and October 14 releases, plus Spectrum News, WNYT and the Times Union. Where sources give different job figures, we attribute each. The image is a stock photo, not the Malta site.

Published and fact-checked November 13, 2026.

Sources

  1. GlobalFoundries, "GlobalFoundries breaks ground on first new semiconductor fab under landmark U.S.-Japan initiative," Nov. 13, 2026: https://gf.com/news-and-events/news/globalfoundries-breaks-ground-on-first-new-semiconductor-fab-under-landmark-us-japan-initiative/
  2. Office of the Governor of New York, "Governor Hochul Celebrates the Groundbreaking of GlobalFoundries' New $10 Billion Semiconductor Manufacturing Facility in Saratoga County," Nov. 13, 2026: https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-celebrates-groundbreaking-globalfoundries-new-10-billion-semiconductor
  3. GlobalFoundries, "GlobalFoundries selected to operate two new semiconductor fabs in New York under landmark U.S.-Japan initiative," Oct. 14, 2026: https://investors.gf.com/news-releases/news-release-details/globalfoundries-selected-operate-two-new-semiconductor-fabs-new
  4. Spectrum News, "GlobalFoundries starts New York expansion with U.S.-Japan fab," Nov. 13, 2026: https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/news/2026/11/13/globalfoundries-starts-malta-expansion-with-u-s--japan-fab

References

DailyMech used AI tools to help research and draft this article; it was fact-checked by our editors.

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