US Commerce Department Awards GlobalFoundries $300M for Photonics

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The US Commerce Department has granted GlobalFoundries $300 million to advance silicon photonics technology, optical materials, and advanced packaging. Photonics-based interconnects move data between chips at light speed with lower power consumption than conventional copper wiring, addressing one of the core scaling bottlenecks in large AI accelerator clusters. GlobalFoundries is one of the few US-based foundries capable of producing specialty chips at scale. The award aligns with the CHIPS Act strategy of rebuilding domestic semiconductor supply chains and expanding beyond logic chips into photonic integration. Details on specific deliverables, timelines, or performance milestones tied to the grant are not provided in the source article, which is limited to two sentences. The broader strategic context — reducing US reliance on Asian photonics suppliers as AI infrastructure demand surges — is clear, but specifics remain to be disclosed.