The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 15th (local time) that Intel, the world’s largest semiconductor company, is negotiating to acquire GlobalFoundry, a U.S. foundry company, for $30 billion.
Intel is pushing for the largest merger and acquisition since its inception, and GlobalFoundry, the target of the merger, is an American foundry company owned by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund. Global Foundry is currently pushing for IPO.
Until now, Intel had only designed semiconductors and had TSMC and others in Taiwan do consignment processing. However, due to the global semiconductor crisis, demands for semiconductors to be manufactured directly have risen, and WSJ analyzed that it seems that it is trying to acquire GlobalFoundry, which has a factory in the U.S.
Intel had earlier said it would invest more than $20 billion to strengthen its manufacturing capabilities. Intel is the world’s largest semiconductor company with a market capitalization of $225 billion.
Global Foundry was established by Intel’s rival AMD as a subsidiary specializing in semiconductor manufacturing and became independent in 2008. Global Foundry reportedly controls 7 percent of the world’s foundry market.
