July 29 (Reuters) - GlobalFoundries said on Wednesday the U.S. government will award $300 million to the chipmaker to bolster research and development of silicon photonics technology to power more efficient AI data centers.
The award is part of President Donald Trump's effort to direct CHIPS Act research funding toward critical semiconductor technologies as Washington seeks to strengthen its position in the global race with China.
The administration has previously committed $150 million for semiconductor
manufacturing equipment and $2 billion for quantum computing.
Silicon photonics uses light instead of electrical signals to move data between chips, enabling higher bandwidth and lower power consumption for AI systems.
The funding from the U.S. Department of Commerce is also aimed at advancing co-packaged optics (CPO), a technology that integrates silicon photonics directly alongside AI processors to further boost data-transfer speeds and energy efficiency.
Much of the supply chain for silicon photonics and advanced optical packaging is currently concentrated outside the United States, with major manufacturers including Taiwan's TSMC and Israel's Tower Semiconductor.
GlobalFoundries said it is targeting to boost data transfer speeds to 400 gigabits per second and up to five times greater energy efficiency than current-generation implementations.
"GlobalFoundries has spent more than a decade building the technology, footprint and ecosystem to lead this transition, and we have the proven manufacturing foundation to scale it — in the United States," said Tim Breen, CEO of GlobalFoundries.
The research will use the company's facilities in Malta, New York, and Burlington, Vermont.
(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Vijay Kishore)
