GlobalFoundries will invest up to $2.7 billion to increase chip production

[1] GlobalFoundries, formally the manufacturing wing of Advanced Micro Devices Inc ([2] AMD), and now the world’s third largest independent semiconductor foundry has announced it will invest up to $2.7 billion during 2010 in order to increase capacity across it’s many facilities.

According to the article posted by [3] TechEye.net  the major part will be invested in Fab 1. Most of the money will be used to for “the ramp of 32/28nm HKMG technology”

Fab 1 (previously Fabs 30 and 36 belonging to AMD) is situated in Dresden, the first manufacturing site of GlobalFoundries at its formation as a joint venture between AMD and the Abu Dhabi state investment vehicle Advanced Technology Investment Co. ([4] ATIC) and is planned to achieve an output level of 60.000 wafers per month when fully developed.

The money will also help develop 22-nm CMOS process and manufacture in a much larger volume. It is not clear however whether the new 22-nm facility will include a departure from the HKMG (gate-first high-K metal gate) CMOS processes being currently being manufactured at 32- and 28-nanometers to SOI (Silicon on insulator) technology

Tech site [5] FudZilla has speculated that “The investment is part of Globalfoundries’ efforts to increase its market share by 50 percent by 2012. The company plans to seize 30 percent of the foundry marked by late 2012.”

The investment does demonstrate a significant investment in future manufacturing processes, and as [1] GlobalFoundries is not releasing a full breakdown of exactly how the money will be distributed the industry can only wait and see what the next move will be.