The US Commerce Department signed a letter of intent to give GlobalFoundries $300 million in CHIPS Act funding in exchange for a roughly 1% equity stake valued at about $269 million. The money will fund development of GlobalFoundries’ silicon photonics co-packaged optics technology, aimed at delivering 400 Gb/s per-lane connectivity for AI data centers where copper interconnects are hitting their limits. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the investment is meant to strengthen domestic semiconductor manufacturing, following a similar arrangement that converted CHIPS Act funding into a 10% US government stake in Intel.
