GloFo CEO visits Malta
MALTA, N.Y. » GlobalFoundries’ top executives and international investment partners gathered Monday to tout the Malta semiconductor plant’s far-reaching economic impact, while calling on government support for future investment.
The company, since 2009, has spent $12 billion on its Fab 8 computer chip manufacturing facility and an adjacent research center at Luther Forest Technology Campus. Together they employ 3,300 people and support thousands of other jobs in the region.
GlobalFoundries is wholly owned by Abu Dhabi- based Mubadala Investment Company, whose chief executive officer, Kal-
doon Khalifa Al Mubarak, addressed more than 200 people during a noontime luncheon. Abu Dhabi is capital city of the United Arab Emirates, founded in 1971.
“GlobalFoundries is the pinnacle of U. S.-UAE relations,” Al Mubarak said. “No other country has been more critical to our development than the United States.”
The nations conduct $24.3 billion worth of bilateral trade annually, with $20 billion worth U. S. exports going to the UAE including $3 billion from New York state alone.
Al Mubarak is part of delegation that includes GlobalFoundries board Chairman Ahmed Yahia Al Idrissi and Yousef Al Otaiba,
UAE ambassador to the U.S.
From Malta, the group is expected to meet with state officials in Albany and congressional leaders in Washington, D.C. during a weeklong visit.
The possibility of a second chip manufacturing plant at Luther Forest has been mentioned often. But Al Mubarak only fielded a few questions during a brief post-luncheon press conference, and offered no insights about plans for such development.
However, the company is currently in the process of investing hundreds of millions of dollars at Fab 8, to upgrade manufacturing operations for production of new smaller-sized seven nanometer chips. The goal is to drive down costs and increase efficiency.
The computer chips made at GlobalFoundries have a wide variety of applications including the medi- cal, transportation and defense industries.
A long lineup of company and elected officials cited the need for continued cooperation between the private and public sectors.
“We just need to go forward and underpin what’s happening here with appropriate response from government in Washington,” said U. S. Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam. “This is an industry that’s changing by leaps and bounds in very short periods of time. It’s important to keep that momentum going.”
GlobalFoundries Chief Executive Officer TomCaulfield said the Malta plant’s success is validation that the company and government made wise invest- ments. The State of New York provided more than $1 billion worth of financial incentives for the project.
“It’s clear this was the right investment at the right time,” he said. “The demand for silicon has been higher than ever because of its power to change the industry, to change the world. This is the high ground. The only way this works is to have strategic investments.”
Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, D-Round Lake, was part of a contingent of state officials on hand.
“We have been blown away by the success of this facility,” she said. “I think we are on the cusp of being the next Silicon Valley.”