GlobalFoundries Buys 800 Acres in Malta for Potential Chip Fab

MALTA– GlobalFoundries Inc. (GF) announced it has completed the purchase of approximately 800 acres of additional land adjacent to its Malta, NY, manufacturing facility. With the purchase, which has been in process since early 2022, GF now owns the entirety of the approximately 1,110-acre park, formerly known as the Luther Forest Technology Campus.

Malta is located about 20 miles north of Albany.

With this additional land, GF has the flexibility to add manufacturing capacity and expand its footprint in New York in alignment with customer demand, and provide space for further development with its ecosystem partners. The rate and pace of GF’s expansion in Malta will be aligned with market conditions, customer commitments, and U.S. federal funding from the CHIPS and Science Act.

“Semiconductors are essential to daily life, and are at the heart of the U.S. economy, domestic supply chains, and national defense. GF stands ready to play a key role in the implementation of the CHIPS Act, which will boost U.S. semiconductor manufacturing by creating a globally competitive framework,” said Steven Grasso, managing director of global government relations at GF. “This land purchase gives us the space and flexibility we need in the near-term to service the growing market demand for secure, reliable U.S.-made chips. This purchase also represents GF’s long-term commitment to New York and growing the semiconductor ecosystem that supports both GF’s world-class manufacturing facility in Malta and the regional semiconductor cluster envisioned by the CHIPS Act.”

This week, the company also named Hui Peng Koh as vice president and general manager of the company’s semiconductor manufacturing facility in Malta. Building on her experience in leading the 1,200 strong engineering team in Malta for the last three years, Ms. Koh is stepping up to lead GF’s most advanced U.S. fab that supports a wide range of customers. She succeeds long time GF executive and industry veteran Peter Benyon who will retire in early July 2023 after more than 40 years in the semiconductor industry including being part of the GF team since the acquisition of Chartered Semiconductor in 2011.

Ms. Koh, an accomplished leader with more than 23 years of semiconductor manufacturing experience, currently serves as vice president of manufacturing engineering at GF. Prior to her current role, she was the director of lithography and held various leadership positions at the company’s Malta facility. Previously, she served in several technology development roles at GF’s Singapore campus. Ms. Koh earned her master’s degree in materials engineering from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

GF employs approximately 2,500 people in Malta and to date has invested more than $15 billion in the facility.  The company cut 221 jobs last December at its Malta facility according to WARN filing with NYS Department of Labor.