GlobalFoundries Chief Executive Officer Tom Caulfield said recently that the company has signed more long-term cooperation agreements, of which 30 customers have pledged to contribute a total of $3.2 billion to help GlobalFoundries expand production to support strong chip demand.
In 2021, GlobalFoundries has accelerated its business plan by capitalizing on the need for pervasive semiconductor solutions and by playing a key role in the semiconductor supply chain, Caulfield said.
"We are executing well and believe we will deliver strong revenue and earnings growth in 2022," Caulfield added.
GlobalFoundries' chief financial officer, David Reeder, said the chip shortage won't be resolved in 2022. He noted that end-market demand is growing at a mid- to high-single-digit rate. However, the new capacity announced in the market will only increase at a rate of 4% per year over the next five years.
Reeder also said that in 2021, about 15 million silicon wafers were used for 12nm-90nm chips, and this does not include cutting-edge technologies for microprocessors and memory chips. Assuming demand grows by 8% per year, that's about 1.2 million chips, which equates to three new chip fabs per year.
