GlobalFoundries to make AI-chip interposers for TSMC in New York

GlobalFoundries said on October 8, 2026, that it would manufacture silicon interposers for TSMC at its Malta, New York, facility, Reuters reported. The components connect AI processors and memory chips, making the agreement relevant to an advanced-packaging capacity shortage that has become a constraint on AI-chip production.

Under the five-year agreement, GlobalFoundries will expand manufacturing capacity at the Malta facility to produce the components. The arrangement also provides a framework for further expansion as demand for advanced packaging grows, according to the Reuters report published by CNA.

Why silicon interposers matter for AI chips

A silicon interposer sits beneath processors and memory chips inside an advanced AI package and allows them to communicate at high speeds. GlobalFoundries’ announced role is to manufacture that connecting component for TSMC; the report does not describe an agreement to manufacture the AI processors themselves.

That distinction matters because the constraint described by Reuters concerns advanced packaging, where demand exceeds available manufacturing capacity. Producing the processors is only part of the reported supply picture: the agreement addresses a component used to connect processors and memory within their packages.

New York production ramp expected in 2028

Volume production is expected to begin ramping in the first half of 2028, Reuters reported. That is a prospective manufacturing milestone: the October announcement does not establish that the planned capacity is already supplying interposers in volume, or give a date for reaching full output.

GlobalFoundries expects the Malta facility to become the first US-based source of silicon interposers used in advanced chip-packaging technologies, according to Reuters. The first-US-source description is the company’s expectation for the facility, rather than an independently demonstrated description of its current operating status.

The report gives no numerical capacity target for the expansion. Although the agreement establishes a route to additional manufacturing capacity, it does not quantify how much of the packaging shortfall that capacity could address. Nor does it establish a reduction in shortages, prices or delivery times.

How the agreement fits TSMC’s packaging technology

In its 2025 annual report, TSMC explains that its CoWoS advanced-packaging service integrates multiple system-on-chip devices with high-bandwidth-memory stacks to increase computing power and memory bandwidth. That provides a broader technical context for the processor-and-memory connections described in the new agreement.

TSMC reported that CoWoS-S, its silicon-interposer version, had already been in volume production for several years. The company describes that technology as featuring dense interconnect routing and embedded deep-trench capacitors. Silicon interposers therefore form part of an established packaging approach in TSMC’s published account.

The annual report also describes other interposer approaches. CoWoS-R uses redistribution layers and entered its third year of volume production in 2025. CoWoS-L combines a redistribution-layer interposer with embedded local silicon interconnects and other elements; TSMC said it entered its second year of volume production in 2025.

TSMC described strong growth in CoWoS driven by AI demand since 2023, and said its 3.5-reticle-size CoWoS-L had been in production since 2024. Those historical details illustrate the existing technology base. They do not identify the exact CoWoS variant, customer processors or memory products that the GlobalFoundries agreement will serve.

Financial terms and output targets remain unspecified

GlobalFoundries shares were up about 4% in premarket trading in Reuters’ October 8 report. That figure records the move reported at that point in trading; it is neither a closing-price change nor a measure of the agreement’s eventual financial contribution.

The report provides no contract value, investment amount, unit pricing, revenue contribution or employment estimate. The confirmed commercial outline is consequently limited to the five-year agreement, the planned Malta capacity expansion and the expected production ramp, with the scale of output and financial returns unspecified.