# THE IMPACT OF GLOBALFOUNDRIES ACQUISITIONS OF AMF IN SINGAPORE AND INFINLINK IN CAIRO ON PHOTONICS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwjXrb4et34

[00:00] Hello from Sydney, Australia.
[00:02] It is summer over here and we're kicking off another Optica global tour.
[00:07] Over the next few weeks, we'll be part of global discussions and visiting Optica corporate members as we go.
[00:14] Here in Sydney, I'll be moderating an industry panel at ICON, Australia's largest bianual conference in nanocience.
[00:23] But today, I want to share with you something very timely.
[00:27] We're having a call with Global Foundaries because in the last months we have seen a series of acquisitions that have changed the landscape of Silicon Photonics worldwide.
[00:42] On November 17, 2025, Global Foundaries announced the acquisition of Advanced Micro Foundry AMF in Singapore.
[00:48] Just 10 days later, they announced the acquisition of Infini Link, the company from Kaido.
[00:56] On paper, this looks like a logical expansion of an existing footprint.
[00:58] But in practice, it reshapes
[01:01] the competitive landscape for silicon photonics because by revenue, Global Foundaries has now become the largest pure play silicon photonics foundry worldwide.
[01:08] And that matters.
[01:11] We heard from many smaller optica corporate members asking the same question.
[01:17] What does this mean for us?
[01:20] For the photonix community, this move is a clear signal of where the market is heading.
[01:25] AI is pushing optical communication into the center of the semiconductor strategy.
[01:29] Silicon Photonics has now moved from interesting to essential and that's why we are having a call with Kevin Zukap to speak with someone working inside the decision making process of this strategic moves.
[01:47] First of all, thank you for having me.
[01:49] It's great to to get a chance to meet you and discuss the strategy at GF and how we're thinking about, you know, the additive nature of these acquisitions that we've made.
[01:59] Kevin, these announcements that you made are huge for Silicon Photonics.
[02:01] I think
[02:03] you understand that.
[02:04] Absolutely.
[02:04] Absolutely.
[02:06] Timing of these acquisitions so important.
[02:08] Perhaps maybe you could give us some idea of how fast AI is pushing silicon photonics.
[02:15] Well, we see dramatic growth in the market.
[02:17] And if you think about you know global foundaries now plus AMF we uh created the largest foundry by revenue in the silicon photonic space.
[02:25] Um, good news is with the combined R&D capabilities and as well as the system architecture and design capability that Infinilink brings, what it means for all of our customers is we've really enhanced our ability to accelerate their roadmap and accelerate their design into uh the two different platforms that GF offers today.
[02:51] Kevin, I think you're aware of this.
[02:51] AMF was a huge player in the early access of silicon photonics.
[02:56] They had many customers all over the world.
[02:58] They have many customers all over the world.
[03:01] What will change for AMF customers in the
[03:05] first 12 to 18 months and what will remain as it is today?
[03:11] Absolutely.
[03:11] I I'd say what remains is um very tight collaboration and innovation with a set of partners.
[03:20] I mean, I like to think of our customers as partners and uh and we're all developing this market together and so the ability to collaborate very early in system architecture and customization is super important.
[03:31] Um AMF does that and GF will continue to do that with all of the customers that are currently served out of the 200 millimeter facility in Singapore.
[03:43] What will what will change is that uh you know there are cases where big customers love AMF technology but did not see a path to scale with AMF because the building sat in a in an R&D campus um owned by the government in Singapore.
[04:02] Now GF has a very large
[04:05] campus in Woodlands and Singapore and we have the ability to scale rapidly for both the existing customers of AMF plus probably open the door to many other customers that love the technology but didn't see a path to scale.
[04:19] Correct Kevin but here there is a concern of course not every silicon photonix technology needs to be scaled and also not every company has the capability to access high volume markets.
[04:30] When you think about global fundaries, my first gut feeling is volume production.
[04:34] But AMF actually serve smaller firms that rely on MPW and low volume runs.
[04:40] How can GF guarantee continuity of service for those smaller firms?
[04:47] Well, I think if you look at what's happening in the AI data center space, many companies need to scale.
[04:55] Just the the volume requirements to support that market are huge.
[04:57] And so there's a set of customers that looks like that that needs access to scale uh that needs access to you know the next uh uh baud
[05:09] rate for example as quickly as possible.
[05:12] But then there's another set of emerging applications that that comes behind.
[05:17] whether that's in the LAR space uh sensing space in the medical space even quantum computing where um you know just bringing a single PDK to the market and and making a broad offering does not work.
[05:31] And so the nice thing about GF and AMF and Infinilink all together, we've we've uh scaled our R&D as a result of that and we have the ability to support so many more customer engagements through that process.
[05:48] Kevin, pricing is a point of anxiety for many small and medium enterprises.
[05:55] Global Foundaries can global fundaries outline its position in short-term pricing stability and how the transition to GF will be managed commercially.
[06:06] you mean you're asking for AMF customers
[06:09] or for yeah though AMF had very competitive silicon photonic pricing.
[06:14] without entering details how can we maintain continuity and not generate anxiety for perhaps thinking that the pricing will change for for the current customers of AMF.
[06:27] Yeah. Yeah.
[06:29] Well, I'd say, you know, the first thing is to say it like there is not a strategy to change pricing for AMF.
[06:36] What we intend to do is bring continuity first and foremost for the existing customers and then to give them all the benefits that GF has to offer which which means uh you know faster cycle time uh better uh processes and uh systems controls so that you can both scale capacity but also scale yield much more rapidly.
[07:05] Kevin, the acquisitions were not the only big announcement of global foundaries in 2025.
[07:10] You also announced that you will be providing packaging linked to your silicon photonics production.
[07:18] So let's talk about advantages now.
[07:21] What are the main technical advantages you see from for AMF current customers into GF design packaging of course more than scaling?
[07:31] Yeah.
[07:31] No, absolutely.
[07:33] And I think now as you turn to co-ackaged optics uh market development, there are a lot more things than a wafer process that are required to support that market.
[07:43] Uh you know, first I'll talk about an EIC, an electronic IC stacked with a photonic IC.
[07:52] Um the ability to get a high amount of power and a high amount of signal transferred across the pick to the EIC and back means you need the ability to support highdensity TSVs.
[08:03] Uh maybe you know future generations of hybrid integration with a hybrid bonding fabric between the
[08:11] EIC and the PIC.
[08:14] So GF is is developing that technology.
[08:17] The second thing that I would mention is uh fiber attach.
[08:20] Um as you move closer and closer to the XPU um you need to be really thoughtful about how to get high radics count uh connectivity to that XPU for for that XPU to talk to many other chips whether it's switch or or another XPU itself.
[08:38] And so the fiber attach strategy is very important.
[08:42] And what GF offers is a broadband uh surface mount detachable fiber connection solution with a with a competitive insertion loss.
[08:53] So we expect that will put us in a in a position to help the market accelerate adoption but then also scale rapidly in terms of the number of fibers that can be connected and the number of wavelengths that can be supported across each fiber.
[09:11] I keep saying to to everyone every forum.
[09:14] I am that the biggest thing that happened to silicon photonics was the global foundaries took a role took a leading role into into its commercialization and that's where it became really a semiconductor technology.
[09:28] But AMF was not your only acquisition.
[09:31] You also acquired Infinilink and I like very much you're talking about highspeed optical engines.
[09:35] You're talking about CPO about pluggables.
[09:37] How will the integration of Infinite think accelerate development of those technologies?
[09:44] Sure.
[09:46] I mean, first let me talk about what's compelling about the team.
[09:48] The the team itself has knowledge in systems architecture, uh, pick design, uh, driver design, TIA design.
[09:57] They they bring, you know, a plethora of design capabilities for a whole optical engine.
[10:04] Why is that important?
[10:04] We have so many customers now coming to us um that you know in some cases they've got a great
[10:12] design team and they're ready to design into GF.
[10:13] In other cases they they have a design team that's fully committed to a product and they need some help to to accelerate their product roadmap into GF.
[10:25] And so we can offer services that can help them get their next tape out into GF.
[10:30] Um but then you know the again the big thing is this this uh every one of these customers comes with a strategy they have in mind to win in the optics space and they all think about the architecture and the evolution of data centers and the evolution of their chipsets a little bit differently and so we need to be able to rapidly translate their requirements into a roadmap uh with the process technology and the packaging technology that supports.
[10:59] And so Infinilink is on board to help us do all of that and and the goal is to help our customers get to market faster and going to the market faster and
[11:12] scaling up faster.
[11:14] Global Foundry have been working on 300 mm already for for many many years.
[11:19] But the photonics community not so much.
[11:22] There is a clear road map in Singapore to move from 200 mm to 300 mm photonix manufacturing.
[11:28] How will the customer transition without any major redesign penalties?
[11:33] You know, will the existing designs move from 200 millimeter to 300 millimeter?
[11:38] Probably not.
[11:41] Um, you know, what we want to do is help them scale volume for existing designs.
[11:48] But there are natural decisions in the road map where where a a customer could say, "Hey, I want to move from, you know, 100 G to 200G per lambda."
[11:56] That's a that's a natural point where I could uh change my design or I want to go from 200 gig per lambda to 400 gig per lambda.
[12:06] That's another point where you could intercept and make the transition from 200 to 300 millimeter.
[12:11] Um maybe you know maybe it sounds
[12:14] complicated but I think the answer is tight discussion with the customers on what's best in that transition to support them in their um in their market.
[12:25] One thing that for me as a as a person who with a PhD on quantum physics that I love about Global Foundry is that you always try to to look for many different applications uh quantum computing with photonics sensing.
[12:41] How does this new silicon photonic center of excellence support these new applications?
[12:48] Yeah, it's a good question.
[12:51] I think you know the way that we've been thinking about the center of excellence in the very near term um is you know first and foremost unlock unlock the AMF technology into a um a factory that can help them scale.
[13:04] So that's kind of you know number one.
[13:07] Number two, there are benefits that the AMF technology
[13:14] um can bring in, you know, in some cases in a modulator design or in photo diode design that would be useful to implement in the CLLO platform that GF uh offered to the market.
[13:24] And so to you know the second second goal is to get the best of both worlds onto a unified roadmap for the future.
[13:32] And then the third in terms of the center of excellence is to if you think about Singapore itself, Singapore has deep expertise in new materials uh capabilities, deep expertise in advanced packaging and they're both critical um to the evolution of the silicon photonic space.
[13:52] So for example, you know, will 400G be on a siliconbased solution or will it require thin film lithium niabate or PTO or some sort of polymer?
[14:02] Um I think it's TBD and they each have their pros and cons but the center of excellence can drive the um the technology decision making to down select there so that we
[14:16] can be first to market uh with our lead customers on 400 400g.
[14:23] You talk about the best of both worlds.
[14:24] I I love that.
[14:24] Let's talk about the best of this world.
[14:30] This world has a lot of challenges and this world has a lot of advantages.
[14:35] But if we think about the challenges, we continue to live in a world of trade wars of tariffs.
[14:40] Uh many of your customers require supply chain resilience and dual region sourcing.
[14:46] Global Foundry is a global company operating in four continents I believe.
[14:51] How do you ensure the supply chain resilience doing regional sourcing to your to your big customers?
[14:59] Absolutely.
[14:59] I think you know outside of silicon photonix that's exactly what GF uh brings to the market.
[15:07] We've got the ability to you know in some cases even source from three continents uh for the same technology.
[15:11] silicon photonix needs to get to that stage inside of GF as
[15:17] well and the abil you know right now uh.
[15:21] we don't have that ability even after the acquisition of AMF.
[15:23] we have two different sets of customers on two different platforms that are both ramping.
[15:30] but part of our evolution will be ensuring that silicon photonix is treated just like the other technologies in GF and that's a key part of our value proposition to create that ability to source the same technology where a customer can tape out once to GF and produce in several locations.
[15:50] GF now is positioning itself as the largest pure play silicon photon foundry by revenue and with leadership comes responsibility.
[15:59] Are there still room for collaboration with the smaller companies?
[16:03] In the past, you have always collaborated with companies to develop the Silicon Photonix platform.
[16:09] Now that you're in the lead, would you still be open for collaborations?
[16:11] And I guess so.
[16:13] So, which are the easiest room for collaborations with other companies?
[16:19] I think um I think collaboration is critical uh in evolving the market.
[16:27] And it's just, you know, if I think about, and maybe I'm a little bit biased as the as the leader of the silicon photonics business, but I think of it as a leading edge business where there's so much development and so much pathfinding that's happening, whether it's in, you know, um, achieving a higher bud rate, achieving uh, more wavelengths through a single fiber, changing the fiber strategy so that you can over time fan out to more and more fiber.
[16:57] Um, all of these things require deep innovation and I haven't found a single company that has all of it and so collaboration is key and and we are very thoughtful about the partners that we select.
[17:09] Um, and you know it's good for everyone if we can work together to bring a solution faster to the market.
[17:18] Finally, Kevin to close this fantastic
[17:20] interview, what is your message to AMF's longestanding customers?
[17:26] How do you want them to view this transition?
[17:29] I want them to view uh this as nothing but positive.
[17:35] Um it's a path to accelerate capacity expansion for their existing products.
[17:40] It's a path to extend their roadmap and make sure that they've got a company that they're working with which collaborates deeply with them.
[17:47] Uh helps them differentiate in their space and bring value and helps them win in their market.
[17:52] Uh, and I'm I love the uh the collaboration and looking forward to to helping each of our customers win.
[18:02] Kevin Soap, SVP and GM of Silicon Photonics business as Global Foundaries.
[18:07] We are only a few weeks away from OFC.
[18:10] I look forward to meeting all your colleagues and to see how the Silicon Photonix industry benefits a lot by having global fundraisers in the lead.
[18:19] Thank you so much.
[18:21] Thank you for the time.
[18:22] Nice talking with you.