CEO interview: Globalfoundries' Tom Caulfield on the European project

By Peter Clarke, eeNews Analog (August 02, 2021)

We sat down with Tom Caulfield, CEO of Globalfoundries, and discussed Europe's plans to build up its semiconductor supply chain, something in which GF is set to play a major part.

Globalfoundries is a leading pure-play foundry, headquartered in New York, but with a wafer fab in Dresden, Germany. That campus forms an anchor for the Silicon Saxony initiative and it could be a key part of Europe's plans to re-invigorate its semiconductor fortunes in pursuit of strategic independence.

We started by asking Caulfield about the proclaimed goal of doubling Europe's chip manufacturing capacity to 20 percent of global output by 2030 when its share is said to be down at 6 or 7 percent by some analysts. Others have pointed out that Europe's share of the more advanced chip manufacturing on 300mm-diameter wafers has been less than 1 percent of global output (see Europe's 300mm IC manufacturing falls below 1% of world output). With the continent's share on a downward trend surely 20 percent is an unrealistic goal.