GlobalFoundries will provide silicon interposers for TSMC's CoWoS advanced packaging ecosystem.

GlobalFoundries has announced a manufacturing agreement with TSMC to establish a U.S.-based supply of silicon interposers for TSMC's CoWoS advanced packaging ecosystem. Under the agreement, GF will provide manufacturing services and expand fabrication capacity at its Malta, New York facility, establishing the first U.S. source of silicon interposers supporting advanced packaging technologies, including embedded deep trench capacitor components.

The multi-year, $2 billion agreement is structured to expand capacity over time as customer demand grows. Volume production is expected to begin ramping at the Malta site during the first half of 2028. The agreement has an initial five-year term and provides a framework for future capacity expansion.

"Advanced packaging is becoming increasingly critical to delivering the performance, power efficiency and scale required for next-generation AI systems," said Ed Kaste, senior vice president of CMOS Business at GF. "By providing manufacturing service using GF's trusted U.S. manufacturing footprint, we are creating a secure, scalable source of essential advanced-packaging elements that will help customers accelerate innovation and strengthen the semiconductor supply chain."

GF has developed its own interposer technologies within its advanced packaging portfolio. The technology being supplied to TSMC under this agreement is specific to TSMC's CoWoS ecosystem and is covered by a licensing agreement between the two companies. More broadly, GF provides a range of foundry services and is aggressively pursuing opportunities in silicon photonics and quantum computing.

TSMC's CoWoS—Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate—is a 2.5D packaging technology that accommodates multiple dies in a single package. Dies are stacked on top of an intermediary layer called an interposer, which routes electrical signals between the dies and a circuit board. The technology is widely used in AI and high-performance computing applications by companies including AMD, Broadcom, Google, and NVIDIA.

TSMC, the world's largest foundry vendor, manufactures the vast majority of its chips and packages in Taiwan but has made significant investments in the United States in recent years. According to TD Cowen, TSMC has invested approximately $265 billion in Arizona. The company is currently ramping its first Arizona fab, which produces 4nm chips, while also building three additional fabs and a packaging plant in the state.