$Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.US)$ Many top semiconductor com...

$Advanced Micro Devices(AMD.US)$ Many top semiconductor companies are now "fabless," meaning they only design their chips and the technology inside of them. Other companies, known as foundries, fabrication plants or simply "fabs," are contracted to actually make the chips. GlobalFoundries is part of the latter group, making silicon wafers for companies like $Advanced Micro Devices(AMD.US)$, $NVIDIA(NVDA.US)$ and $Apple(AAPL.US)$. In fact, the company was spun off AMD in 2009 after the semiconductor firm wanted to get out of the fab business.

Compared to other foundry giants like $SMIC(00981.HK)$ and $Taiwan Semiconductor(TSM.US)$, $GlobalFoundries(GFS.US)$ is billing itself as the largest silicon wafer supplier not dependent on China and Taiwan. That doesn't mean the business will be U.S.-controlled or profitable (Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment holds a majority stake). GlobalFoundries also reported a loss of $1.35B in 2020, and has yet to swing to a profit, though it's showing some signs of improvement given the strong chip demand.