What happened?
GlobalFoundries (GF) and TSMC announced a five-year manufacturing agreement valued at $2 billion. Under the deal, GF will produce silicon interposers for TSMC's CoWoS (Chip on Wafer on Substrate) advanced packaging technology. Production will take place at GF's Malta, New York fab, with volume production expected to begin in the first half of 2028.
What is a silicon interposer?
A silicon interposer is a custom piece of silicon that provides high-density connections between logic chiplets and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) stacks. It plays a critical role in multi-die processors built for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing (HPC). These interposers are typically application-specific, designed around power delivery, signal integrity and thermal requirements.
Why it matters
The agreement will allow TSMC's clients to label their products as fully made and packaged in America. GF will not be a direct TSMC supplier but a subcontractor producing multiple customer-specific interposer designs. The arrangement could free up TSMC's own manufacturing resources and increase availability of components needed for advanced packaging.
Open questions
The companies did not disclose the production capacity to be installed. Interposer manufacturing is only one part of the CoWoS-S process; attaching chiplets and HBM stacks, assembling structures onto organic substrates and electrical testing are not covered by the agreement. How intellectual property ownership and protection will be handled also remains unclear.
