Source: IT Home  19th Nov 2025

According to IT Home, on Monday local time, GlobalFoundries (GF) announced the acquisition of Advanced Micro Foundry (AMF), a Singapore-based silicon photonics chip manufacturer, with the financial details not disclosed.

To support this acquisition, GF also plans to establish a Center of Excellence (CoE) for Silicon Photonics R&D in Singapore. The center will collaborate with A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research) — Singapore’s leading public-sector R&D organization — focusing on developing next-generation materials for 400Gbps ultra-high-speed data transmission, thereby advancing GF’s innovation roadmap.

GlobalFoundries (GF) stated that the acquisition will expand its silicon photonics technology portfolio, production capacity, and R&D capabilities in Singapore, complementing its existing technology in the United States while unlocking new market opportunities through a broader range of data center and communications technologies.

By acquiring AMF, GF will integrate AMF’s manufacturing assets, extensive intellectual property (IP), and specialized talent, significantly expanding GF’s silicon photonics capabilities and establishing it as the world’s highest-revenue pure-play silicon photonics wafer foundry.

Additionally, leveraging AMF’s over 15 years of manufacturing experience, GF will utilize AMF’s 200mm platform in Singapore to address the needs of long-haul optical communications, computing, lidar, and sensing applications. It also plans to scale to a 300mm platform as market demand grows, ensuring a reliable global supply for AI data centers, communications, and next-generation use cases.

Silicon photonics is one of the fastest-growing fields today, with widespread applications in AI data centers and quantum computers. This technology integrates traditional computing chip processes with optical network technology that transmits data via light pulses. IT Home notes that several companies, including NVIDIA, are also collaborating with TSMC to integrate and package some network chips with optical connectivity.

Additionally, a number of well-funded startups in Silicon Valley—such as Ayar Labs, Celestial AI, and Lightmatter—are advancing optical interconnect solutions between chips, with some already partnering with GlobalFoundries (GF) for production.

GF already has a significant footprint in silicon photonics, having assisted quantum computing firm PsiQuantum in manufacturing its photonics-based chips. Following the acquisition of AMF, GF stated it is poised to become the world’s largest silicon photonics manufacturer and will establish a new R&D center in Singapore.

In a statement, GF CEO Tim Breen said: “As data transmission speeds increase and workloads grow more complex, the need to transfer information faster, more accurately, and with higher energy efficiency has become a core requirement for AI data centers and advanced telecommunications networks. Acquiring AMF enables GF to offer a more comprehensive and differentiated 10-year roadmap for pluggable transceivers and co-packaged optics (CPO), while accelerating the expansion of photonics technology into adjacent markets such as automotive and quantum computing.”