GlobalFoundries Launches Quantum Technology Solutions

Insider Brief

• GlobalFoundries launched a new Quantum Technology Solutions business and signed a Letter of Intent with the U.S. Department of Commerce for $375 million in proposed funding to expand domestic quantum manufacturing capabilities.
• The company said its new quantum foundry initiative will support multiple qubit approaches — including superconducting, trapped ion, photonic, topological, and spin qubits — while manufacturing key components such as quantum processor units, cryogenic control chips, and advanced interconnects.
• Quantum companies and technology firms including Diraq, PsiQuantum, Quantinuum, Google, Microsoft, and NVIDIA said the initiative could strengthen the U.S. manufacturing base needed to scale utility-scale quantum computing.

PRESS RELEASE — GlobalFoundries (Nasdaq: GFS) (GF) today launched Quantum Technology Solutions, a new quantum business to scale the manufacturing capabilities the quantum industry needs to achieve utility-scale quantum computing. The new business launches with customer engagements, and a pipeline of quantum innovators positioned to scale on its platform.

With more than a decade of partnership with the U.S. Government and customers across critical semiconductor technologies, and sustained investment in cryogenic CMOS, advanced packaging and materials science, GF has built the industrial layer that quantum companies, the U.S. Government and allied innovators can build on. These capabilities mark GF’s entry into the next generation of high-performance computing (HPC). While the past decade of HPC has been defined by advanced-node CPUs, GPUs and AI ASICs, the next generation will be focused on enabling real-world quantum computing, and GF will manufacture the complete quantum hardware solution from quantum processor units (QPUs) to the cryogenic read-out and control ICs that operate them and the advanced packaging and superconducting interconnects that bind them into systems.

The effort is anchored by quantum companies already engaged with GF’s manufacturing and by the U.S. Department of Commerce, a longstanding partner of GF across critical semiconductor technologies. The U.S. Department of Commerce and GF have entered into a letter of intent to award GF $375M to accelerate the build-out of Quantum Technology Solutions, reflecting the national-security importance of a domestic quantum manufacturing base.

In a separate agreement, the U.S. Department of Commerce will receive a strategic equity investment in GF, representing approximately one percent ownership as of today’s date, enabling the American public to share in GF’s growth.

“With today’s CHIPS Research and Development investments in quantum computing, the Trump administration is leading the world into a new era of American innovation,” said Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. “These strategic quantum technology investments will build on our domestic industry, creating thousands of high-paying American jobs while advancing American quantum capabilities.”

“GF’s role as a semiconductor manufacturing engine is accelerating America’s technology leadership. Deepening our partnership with the United States Government will support a coordinated national push to expand domestic manufacturing, build supply-chain resilience and ensure that revolutionary technologies such as next-generation quantum systems are developed and manufactured in the U.S.,” said Tim Breen, CEO of GlobalFoundries.

A manufacturing-led approach to quantum scale-up

Quantum Technology Solutions will be able to leverage GF’s trusted U.S. manufacturing capabilities, with flexibility across its U.S. footprint, to support the foundational capabilities the quantum industry needs to scale.

GF’s proven FDX platform delivers the cryogenic CMOS that provides the sensing, control and readout functions required for quantum systems. Building on that base, GF is developing the manufacturing platforms to build QPUs across multiple qubit modalities — including superconducting, trapped ion, photonic, topological and spin — along with the cryogenic and superconducting heterogeneous interconnect platform that integrates these components into utility-scale quantum systems.

“Quantum is at its inflection point. The hardware is moving from lab-scale to industrial scale, and that transition can only happen inside an advanced semiconductor manufacturing environment,” said Gregg Bartlett, chief technology officer of GF. “The cryogenic CMOS, advanced packaging and 3D heterogeneous interconnect needed for utility-scale quantum computing are exactly what we make every day. Just as CPUs and GPUs underpin classical compute, GF is building the QPU, bringing these capabilities to the leaders across leading qubit modalities and positioning GF as the partner of choice for utility-scale quantum computing.”

Supporting a broad ecosystem of customers and partners

“Diraq’s work with GlobalFoundries on FDX has been central to advancing our cryogenic CMOS and silicon spin qubit technologies on an established manufacturing node. As GlobalFoundries invests in a U.S. quantum foundry, we see a clear path to expand that collaboration, accelerate the development of high-performance silicon-based quantum processors and scale within a secure domestic ecosystem,” said Andrew Dzurak, Founder and CEO at Diraq.

“Equal1’s partnership with GlobalFoundries, and in particular our use of its FDX technology for cryogenic CMOS and spin qubit architectures, demonstrates how quantum and classical functions can be engineered together on an industrial semiconductor platform. A dedicated quantum foundry at GF will give us the manufacturing capabilities to advance our roadmap and bring our next wave of quantum systems closer to real-world deployment,” said Jason Lynch, CEO, Equal1.

“Quantum computing promises to unlock solutions to otherwise impossible problems, and progress will depend on a strong manufacturing base in the United States. GlobalFoundries’ investment marks an important step to strengthen the U.S.-based manufacturing foundation for the quantum ecosystem,” said Charina Chou, COO, Google Quantum AI.

“Microsoft is pleased to see GlobalFoundries investing in the quantum infrastructure the industry needs to scale, and in particular its support for topological qubits. A secure U.S. manufacturing base, capable of building across multiple qubit modalities, is essential to moving quantum from research milestones to practical computing, and we look forward to the acceleration in quantum capabilities with this initiative,” said Lauri Sainiemi, Corporate Vice President, Fabrication at Microsoft Quantum

“Accelerating the path to useful quantum computing will require deep collaboration across a broad range of technological and infrastructural challenges — from advanced semiconductor manufacturing to the GPU-supercomputing that quantum processors must integrate with to run useful applications. GlobalFoundries’ commitment to scaling quantum is an important step for innovation in the quantum computing ecosystem,” said Timothy Costa, Vice President and General Manager for Computational Engineering and Quantum, NVIDIA.

“PsiQuantum’s deep partnership with GlobalFoundries has been critical for our company’s approach to delivering utility-scale quantum computing. Together, our work and state-of-the-art results in photonics have shown what a U.S. semiconductor manufacturing partner can bring to the quantum industry. We’re pleased that GF will expand its investments, especially here in the United States, and we look forward to continued collaboration alongside one of our closest partners,” said Victor Peng, Interim Chief Executive Officer, PsiQuantum.

“GlobalFoundries has become an important partner in our effort to scale ion trap quantum computing, combining cryogenic CMOS, integrated photonics and advanced packaging in a secure U.S. manufacturing environment. Expanding that partnership through a dedicated quantum foundry will help give us the domestic production base we need as we work to bring our next generation of commercial ion trap platforms to market with greater speed and confidence,” said Dr. Rajeeb Hazra, President and CEO, Quantinuum.

“Our long-standing collaboration with GlobalFoundries has shown existing technologies – like GF’s FDX platform – can support advanced cryogenic CMOS and spin qubit architectures on silicon. With the creation of a U.S. quantum foundry, we see an opportunity to deepen that work, move our designs into more advanced generations and accelerate the path toward scalable silicon-based quantum processors,” said James Palles-Dimmock, CEO, Quantum Motion.

Chris Miller, professor at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and author of Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology, underscores that U.S. leadership in quantum computing will ultimately hinge on the ability to manufacture and scale quantum hardware domestically.

“Quantum computing will be a defining technology of the next decade, and the countries that can manufacture quantum hardware at scale — not just design it — will hold a decisive advantage,” Miller said. “Establishing a dedicated U.S. quantum foundry is exactly the kind of investment we need to translate American research leadership into durable industrial capability, giving the broader quantum ecosystem a secure domestic base to build on.”