GlobalFoundries is a semiconductor foundry that manufactures chips for customers across automotive, aerospace, communications, and consumer electronics markets. Unlike TSMC and Samsung, which pursue the most advanced process nodes for leading-edge logic chips, GlobalFoundries operates specialty processes—manufacturing nodes used in chips where performance density is less critical than cost, reliability, or specific functional requirements. This positioning serves markets needing analog, RF, and mixed-signal capabilities not available in pure digital leading-edge foundries.

The AI supply chain extends beyond the GPU and HBM at its center. Power management chips, RF transceivers, silicon photonics components, and automotive AI processors all require the specialty processes GlobalFoundries offers. Edge AI inference—running AI models on devices rather than in the cloud—is a growing market that often requires chips manufactured on nodes where GlobalFoundries operates, given the power and cost constraints of edge devices.

GlobalFoundries secured CHIPS Act funding agreements for US fab expansion in Malta, New York. It signed multi-year supply agreements with AI edge customers, including automotive OEMs adding AI compute to ADAS systems. The company's strategy positions it as the foundry for portions of the AI hardware ecosystem that don't run through TSMC—the sensors, power ICs, networking chips, and edge compute that support AI applications in vehicles, factories, and connected devices.