GlobalFoundries, TSMC Sign $2 Billion Deal for US AI Chip Packaging Supply

GlobalFoundries has signed a $2 billion manufacturing agreement with TSMC to establish US production of silicon interposers used in advanced semiconductor packaging.

Under the agreement, GlobalFoundries will expand manufacturing capacity at its facility in Malta, New York, where it will produce silicon interposers for TSMC’s CoWoS advanced packaging ecosystem. The companies have agreed an initial five year term, with scope to expand capacity as customer demand increases.

Volume production at the Malta facility is expected to begin ramping during the first half of 2028. GlobalFoundries said the site is expected to become the first US based source of silicon interposers supporting advanced packaging technologies.

Silicon Interposers Become Critical to AI Packaging

Silicon interposers are an important part of advanced AI chip packages. Positioned beneath processors and memory components, they provide high speed electrical connections between different semiconductor dies.

The technology has become particularly important as AI accelerators increasingly combine powerful compute devices with high bandwidth memory, or HBM, within a single package.

TSMC’s CoWoS platform is widely used to integrate these components for high performance computing and AI applications. Growing demand for AI accelerators has placed significant pressure on advanced packaging capacity, making the availability of interposers and related components an increasingly important part of semiconductor supply planning.

GlobalFoundries to Expand New York Capacity

As part of the agreement, GlobalFoundries plans to add fabrication capacity at its Malta manufacturing site.

The additional production will support silicon interposers as well as advanced packaging technologies incorporating embedded deep trench capacitor components. GlobalFoundries said the expansion is intended to provide greater manufacturing scale and flexibility across multiple product generations.

Ed Kaste, Senior Vice President of CMOS Business at GlobalFoundries, said advanced packaging is playing a growing role in meeting the performance, power efficiency and scaling requirements of next generation AI systems.

The company believes its US manufacturing footprint can provide TSMC and its customers with an additional, scalable source for essential packaging components.

TSMC Extends Part of CoWoS Supply Chain to the US

For TSMC, the agreement adds a US manufacturing source for an important part of its advanced packaging ecosystem without transferring production of the complete CoWoS package to GlobalFoundries.

GlobalFoundries will act as a manufacturing supplier for the silicon interposer component, while TSMC continues to manage the wider CoWoS platform and advanced packaging ecosystem.

The partnership also demonstrates how the AI capacity race is extending beyond leading edge wafer fabrication. Packaging components, HBM, substrates, thermal technologies and testing capacity have all become increasingly important as AI processors grow larger and integrate more semiconductor dies.

AI Packaging Investment Spreads Beyond Taiwan

The agreement is also significant for Asia's semiconductor supply chain because TSMC has traditionally concentrated much of its advanced packaging capacity in Taiwan.

TSMC continues to expand packaging operations there as demand from AI and high performance computing customers rises. In September 2026, Taiwan also broke ground on an advanced packaging industrial park in Kaohsiung, anchored by TSMC and designed to strengthen the local packaging, equipment and materials ecosystem.

The GlobalFoundries partnership does not signal a move away from Taiwan. Instead, it gives TSMC an additional geographic source for a key CoWoS component while its Asian advanced packaging capacity continues to expand.

For the wider semiconductor industry, the $2 billion agreement highlights how advanced packaging is becoming a strategic manufacturing layer in its own right. As AI accelerator demand increases, companies are having to secure not only leading edge wafers but also the interposers, memory, substrates and packaging capacity needed to turn those wafers into deployable computing systems.