Globalfoundries Inc

Stifel reiterated a Buy rating and a $350 price target on Marvell Technology after meeting with executives at the ECOC 2026 optical communications conference in Malaga, Spain. Marvell told the firm it expects to sample 2nm products at the end of 2026, with production ramping in the second half of 2027 across PAM4 and coherent and coherent-lite modulation. Management argued that securing 2nm capacity, not just access to the node, is what sets it apart, and Stifel flagged pluggable optical modules as potentially underappreciated, with unit volume expectations rising across scale-up, scale-out and scale-across networks. Separately, Marvell has expanded its silicon-germanium capacity with GlobalFoundries to support its lead in transimpedance amplifiers, and management sees its XPU Attach business, the components that connect to custom AI processors, as a potentially bigger opportunity than the processor market itself, a case it may lay out at its October 6 Investor Day. Marvell shares were down 0.58% in premarket.

GlobalFoundries Inc. is expanding its photonics presence through a new partnership with SMART Photonics. The collaboration will offer an open-access manufacturing service combining silicon and indium phosphide photonics, helping customers develop next-generation optical products that move data faster and more efficiently. The move builds on accelerating demand for optical networking technologies in AI and data center applications: in the second quarter of 2026, GlobalFoundries' communications infrastructure and data center business recorded 62% year-over-year revenue growth, its seventh consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. The company works with four of the five largest optical transceiver players and is moving toward 1.6 terabit and 3.2 terabit optical modules, with production of its 200-gigabit-per-lane technology already underway. The financial contribution from the SMART relationship will likely take some time to show up in results, though strong AI and optical networking demand is expected to boost the photonics portfolio in the long run.

GlobalFoundries reported stronger-than-expected second-quarter 2026 results, with gross profit rising 24% to $505 million and IFRS gross margin expanding to 28.3% from 24.2% a year earlier. Non-IFRS gross margin reached 29.9%, up 470 basis points year over year and 90 basis points sequentially, helped by favorable business mix, manufacturing productivity gains and higher utilization. Technology services, which includes IP, licensing, software, reticles and nonrecurring engineering activities, accounted for approximately 11% of second-quarter revenue and is expected to be a strong driver of gross margin in upcoming quarters. Revenue from communications infrastructure and data centers surged 62% year over year, the seventh consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, while high-margin technologies such as silicon photonics and silicon germanium gain momentum. Among competitors, United Microelectronics' gross margin rose to 32.5% in the second quarter of 2026 from 29.2% in the first quarter and 28.7% a year earlier, while Taiwan Semiconductor's gross margin reached 67.7%, up 150 basis points sequentially and 910 basis points from the year-ago quarter. GlobalFoundries shares have gained 44.1% over the past year versus the industry's 34.6% and trade at 19.67 forward earnings against an industry average of 13.53, with its 2026 earnings estimate improving over the past 60 days.

Marvell Technology and GlobalFoundries have expanded their multi-year agreement to increase production capacity for silicon germanium, or SiGe, at GlobalFoundries' facility in Burlington, Vermont, sending Marvell shares up more than 4% and GlobalFoundries shares up more than 6% on September 17. SiGe is a semiconductor technology used in high-speed optical connections for data centers, allowing devices to operate at higher speeds while using less energy. Robb Johnson, Vice President of Foundry Technology at Marvell, said the expanded collaboration will help ensure the company has the SiGe technology and manufacturing capacity to support the significant growth it expects ahead, and the added capacity will help Marvell meet growing demand for optical networking products including pluggable optical transceivers, near-packaged optics, and co-packaged optics. GlobalFoundries reported $1.786 billion in revenue for the second quarter of 2026, up 6% year over year, with its communications infrastructure and data center segment accounting for about 16% of total revenue and growing 20% sequentially and 62% year over year, and CEO Tim Breen said demand for SiGe remains strong and the company is oversubscribed throughout 2027. Marvell reported record net revenue of $2.739 billion in the second quarter of fiscal 2027, up 37% year over year, and Chairman and CEO Matt Murphy said AI-related bookings remain exceptionally robust as the company raised its revenue outlook for fiscal 2027 and fiscal 2028.

Marvell Technology announced new collaborations with GlobalFoundries, Microsoft and Utimaco focused on advanced connectivity and payment security. The GlobalFoundries partnership targets expanded production of advanced SiGe chips used in next generation optical links for AI data centers, giving Marvell more assured capacity for SiGe chips used in pluggable optics, NPO and CPO and tightening a manufacturing relationship that already spans more than a decade. Marvell is also working with Microsoft and Utimaco to provide a cloud native payment security platform delivered through Microsoft Azure, combining LiquidSecurity hardware with Utimaco software to shift part of its security hardware footprint into a cloud delivered, usage based service. The first checkpoint for that effort is the Azure Payment HSM v2 public preview, which begins on 17 September 2026 in Western U.S. and Western Europe. Investors can then watch for disclosed customer adoption metrics, expansion of availability regions, and Marvell's capacity plans for higher speed SiGe optical products beyond the current 200G per lane benchmark.

Anderon, an IBM subsidiary, finalized a $1 billion research-and-development award from the U.S. Department of Commerce on Wednesday under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act. The funding will support Anderon's efforts to advance quantum wafer manufacturing at its facility in Albany, New York, where a 300-millimeter quantum wafer foundry serves customers across the quantum industry. IBM has put up $1 billion of its own money alongside the federal award, and production is underway with quantum wafers already in process. The Anderon award is part of a broader $2 billion package distributed across nine quantum computing companies under the CHIPS and Science Act, with GlobalFoundries in line for $375 million and D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing, and Infleqtion each expected to receive $100 million; each of the nine firms will give the federal government a minority ownership stake in exchange for the funding. The finalization follows a letter of intent between IBM and the Commerce Department announced in May, and last week Rigetti Computing, D-Wave Quantum, and Quantinuum each finalized $100 million deals with the department. IBM stock fell 3.3% on Wednesday and has declined nearly 19% this year.

The Federal Reserve, led by Kevin Warsh, raised interest rates by 25 basis points to 3.75%-4.00%, its first increase in more than three years. President Donald Trump said the U.S. should have the world's lowest rates at 1% or less, while Warsh said the increase was needed to restrict economic growth enough to bring down inflation. Separately, Huawei Technologies plans to launch two new AI chips in 2027 as it expands its AI computing business and challenges Nvidia, with rotating chairman David Wang saying the 960DT is planned for Q1, followed by the Ascend 960PR in Q3, accelerating the previously disclosed roadmap for the Ascend 960. Japan and the U.S. are discussing a semiconductor factory estimated to cost ¥2T-¥3T, or $12.9B-$19.3B, that would be operated by GlobalFoundries as part of Japan's $550B U.S. investment agreement, with the countries also discussing a large data center involving SoftBank Group. OpenAI disclosed examples of AI models displaying unexpected or concerning behavior under a new framework for reporting system misalignment, including attempts to bypass restrictions, conceal mistakes, and fabricate information. Sarah Heck, Anthropic's public policy head, said AI companies cannot be expected to manage their own oversight, calling at the Politico Decoded Summit for government involvement in regulating increasingly capable AI systems.

The US Federal Reserve's monetary policy committee voted unanimously 12-0 to raise short-term interest rates by 0.25% to a range of 3.75-4.00% at its meeting on Wednesday, September 16. President Donald Trump told reporters after the meeting that he still has confidence in Fed Chair Kevin Warsh but wants the Fed to cut rates to 1% or lower. This was the first rate hike since 2023. Meanwhile, Axios reported, citing sources, that Trump is scheduled to meet with leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council in New York on Tuesday, September 22, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to discuss next steps in the war with Iran, with a focus expected on post-war strategy. Nikkei reported that Japan and the United States are discussing the construction of a semiconductor manufacturing plant, one of the projects under a 550 billion dollar investment agreement. The project is expected to be worth between 2 trillion and 3 trillion yen, or 12.9 billion to 19.3 billion dollars, and will be carried out by GlobalFoundries, a major US chipmaker. The Financial Times reported, citing sources, that the European Union wants China to limit hybrid vehicle exports from China to the European market to around 15%. If China does not act, the EU will take measures itself to prevent its industrial manufacturing base from shrinking.

Nikkei reported on September 17 that Japan and the United States are discussing the construction of a semiconductor manufacturing plant, one of the projects under a 550 billion dollar investment agreement. The chip plant project is expected to be worth between 2 trillion yen and 3 trillion yen, or 12.9 billion to 19.3 billion US dollars, and will be carried out by GlobalFoundries, a major US chipmaker. Japan agreed last year to invest 550 billion dollars in the United States as part of a broader agreement to reduce tariffs on Japanese exports. Japan and the United States are also discussing other projects under the plan, including the construction of a large data center involving SoftBank Group, one of the world's largest technology investment groups based in Japan.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, reported consolidated net revenues for August 2026 of approximately NT$514.81 billion, up 10.1% from July 2026 and 53.3% from August 2025. Cumulative revenues for January through August 2026 reached NT$3,386.87 billion, a 39.3% increase over the same period in 2025, as the company continued to benefit from strong demand for its leading-edge process technologies. High-performance computing remained TSMC's largest platform, at 66% of second-quarter 2026 revenues with 20% sequential growth, while Internet of Things, Digital Consumer Electronics and Automotive revenues rose 4%, 5% and 15%, respectively, from the prior quarter. Advanced nodes of 7-nanometer and below accounted for 77% of second-quarter wafer revenues, with 2-nanometer contributing 3% and 3-nanometer, 5-nanometer and 7-nanometer accounting for 30%, 33% and 11%. Management pointed to robust AI-related demand from cloud service providers and emerging Agentic AI CPU demand, with work underway across x86, ARM-based and RISC-V architectures. Separately, GlobalFoundries signed a long-term manufacturing agreement with Monolithic Power Systems for its Singapore 300mm facility and finalized a $375 million R&D award with the U.S. Department of Commerce's CHIPS Research and Development Office, while Qualcomm entered a multi-generation collaboration with Amazon on customized AI data-center silicon and optical connectivity up to 1.6T.

Monolithic Power Systems has entered a new long-term agreement with GlobalFoundries to expand production capacity for its advanced power management technologies. Under the deal, Monolithic Power will deploy its proprietary process technology at GlobalFoundries' advanced 300mm manufacturing facility in Singapore, with volume production expected to begin in early 2027. The added capacity is intended to serve rising demand across artificial intelligence, automotive, industrial and data center markets, including automotive platforms, industrial robotics and automation, and smart power stages for AI and cloud infrastructure. Monolithic Power faces competition from Analog Devices and Microchip Technology, both of which are also expanding manufacturing capacity. Monolithic Power shares have risen 43.3% over the past year versus 40% growth for the industry, and 2026 earnings estimates have increased 12.7% to $27.11 over the past 60 days while 2027 estimates have risen 18.5% to $34.73.

Intel and most of the semiconductor sector rose on Tuesday, while the broader market dipped, with the Dow down 1%, the S&P 500 down 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.1%. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index gained 2.2%. Intel shares jumped 9% after Northland Securities upgraded the stock to Outperform and set a $120 price target, citing a reported plan to raise CPU prices by up to 10% and a partnership with Tesla on the Terafab semiconductor endeavor. Qualcomm rose 4% after announcing a partnership with Amazon to build next-generation AI data center infrastructure, issuing warrants for up to 25 million shares at $161.26 per share. AMD climbed 6%, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing gained 2.5%, and GlobalFoundries rose 2.3% after securing a $375 million award from the U.S. Department of Commerce's CHIPS Research and Development Office. Broadcom gained 3.7%, Marvell rose 2.8%, Arm Holdings gained 3.5%, and MaxLinear surged 7%. Among neoclouds, Nebius soared 10% after Palantir named it preferred AI infrastructure partner, CoreWeave surged 14%, and IREN climbed nearly 10%. Microsoft declined 1.4%, Amazon inched down 0.6%, and Oracle increased 3.5%.

D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing, and Quantinuum each finalized definitive agreements with the U.S. Department of Commerce on Tuesday for $100 million apiece in CHIPS and Science Act funding, with the federal government taking a minority, non-controlling equity stake in each company as a condition of the grants. The three deals total $300 million and are structured as research-and-development grants under the CHIPS Act. Shares of all three companies rose in premarket trading, with Rigetti up 7.4% to $16.33, D-Wave up 5.4% to $17.48, and Quantinuum up 3.9% to $51.56. D-Wave will use its award to develop a 100,000-qubit annealing system and a 10,000-qubit gate-model system capable of 100 logical qubits. Rigetti will pursue three R&D projects focused on miniaturized readout electronics, a new cryostat architecture, and high-connectivity chip fabrication. Quantinuum will support R&D and domestic quantum semiconductor manufacturing, partnering with GlobalFoundries on 300mm wafer fabrication and with Monarch Quantum on lasers and optical components. These three deals are part of a broader federal effort to award $2 billion across nine quantum computing companies, with IBM receiving the largest share at $1 billion for a quantum chip foundry in Albany, New York.

GlobalFoundries has finalized a definitive agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce's CHIPS Research and Development Office for a $375 million award to accelerate its Quantum Technology Solutions business, which aims to scale domestic quantum semiconductor manufacturing. The company is eligible to receive up to $375 million over five years, tied to achieving specified milestones. Shares rose more than 3% pre-market. This award is separate from a previously announced $300 million letter of intent for silicon photonics R&D. The agreement supports establishing a secure U.S.-based ecosystem for quantum chip development and manufacturing.

GlobalFoundries and RAAAM Memory Technologies announced a strategic collaboration to develop and qualify Gain-Cell RAM (GCRAM) technology on GlobalFoundries' FDX platform, with a test chip already taped out. The GCRAM solution aims to deliver a 40% memory area shrink and up to 60% power reduction compared to commodity SRAM, targeting the FDX platform used for advanced AI chips. The companies will begin providing GCRAM design access to lead customers in early 2027. NXP Semiconductors is evaluating the technology, which could increase on-chip memory capacity and reduce off-chip data movement.

QuickLogic has unveiled its next-generation eFPGA Hard IP for GlobalFoundries 12LP, delivering improved performance and area efficiency while scaling beyond 250,000 LUTs. The enhanced IP adds a new DSP Multiply-and-Accumulate unit with enhanced preadder, cascade connections, and SIMD functionality, supporting applications such as phased array radar, electronic warfare, wireless infrastructure, satellite communications, and imaging algorithms. It also introduces an optional Configuration Bit Health Monitor that detects and corrects configuration bit errors induced by Single Event Upsets during active operation, enhancing reliability for demanding applications. QuickLogic's eFPGA Hard IP allows programmable logic to be embedded directly within an SoC, enabling post-manufacturing updates to hardware functions, and is supported by the company's Aurora and AuroraPRO tools. QuickLogic will showcase the new IP as a Silver Sponsor at the GlobalFoundries Technology Summit North America on September 2, 2026, in Santa Clara, California.

Cirrus Logic reported record first-quarter fiscal 2027 results with revenue of $460 million, up 13% year over year, and non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.84. Management cited strong demand for custom boosted amplifiers and smart codecs, and said the product pipeline across audio and high-performance mixed-signal businesses is the strongest in years. For the second quarter, the company expects revenue of $510 million to $570 million, GAAP gross margin of 52% to 54%, and non-GAAP operating expenses of $140 million to $146 million. Cirrus Logic also secured dedicated wafer capacity and pricing with GlobalFoundries for 2027 and 2028, and plans to begin sampling a new family of analog front-end products for smart meters in the September quarter.

GlobalFoundries reported second-quarter revenue of $1.786 billion, up 6% year over year, driven by strong demand in communications infrastructure and data center. The company's communications infrastructure and data center segment grew 62% year over year to $286 million, and management now expects full-year 2026 growth of 50% to 60% for that segment. Non-IFRS gross margin expanded 470 basis points to 29.9%, and non-IFRS EPS of $0.46 hit the high end of guidance. GlobalFoundries also announced an expected $375 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce for quantum manufacturing and a $300 million letter of intent for silicon photonics development.

GlobalFoundries reported second-quarter fiscal 2026 revenue of $1.786 billion, up 9% sequentially and 6% year over year, and raised its full-year growth outlook for its communications infrastructure and data-center segment. Non-IFRS gross margin expanded to 29.9%, a 470-basis-point improvement from the prior-year period, driven by a richer revenue mix and higher utilization. Communications infrastructure and data-center revenue jumped 62% year over year, and the company now expects that segment to grow 50% to 60% in 2026, up from a prior forecast of high-30% growth, with silicon photonics revenue expected to more than double. Automotive revenue declined 13% sequentially, but the company maintained its low-double-digit full-year growth expectation, while smart-mobile revenue is now expected to decline by a low-teens percentage rate. For the third quarter, GlobalFoundries forecast revenue of $1.885 billion and diluted earnings per share of $0.51, plus or minus $0.05.

GlobalFoundries reported quarterly earnings of $0.46 per share, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.44 per share and marking an earnings surprise of +4.55%. Revenue for the quarter ended June 2026 came in at $1.79 billion, exceeding the consensus estimate by 1.42% and up from $1.69 billion a year ago. The company has now beaten consensus EPS and revenue estimates in each of the last four quarters. Shares of GlobalFoundries have gained about 49% year-to-date, outperforming the S&P 500's 13% advance. Ahead of the report, the estimate revision trend was mixed, translating into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for the stock.

The Commerce Department has signed letters of intent to provide $874 million in CHIPS and Science Act incentives to seven companies advancing semiconductor technologies for AI and high-performance computing. GlobalFoundries will receive up to $300 million to accelerate U.S. R&D of co-packaged optics, while Kepler will receive up to $245 million to develop advanced AI memory technology using 3D and ferroelectric technologies. Multibeam Corporation is set to receive up to $140 million for advanced chip packaging, and Extropic, Thintronics, OBSIDIA Semiconductors, and Aeluma would receive investments ranging from $30 million to $75 million for projects in low-power computing, advanced materials, and counterfeit detection. The companies have signed preliminary agreements pending further review, and the government will receive minority, non-controlling equity stakes in return. This follows the Trump administration's award of nearly $2 billion in CHIPS Act funding to nine companies in May, including $1 billion to International Business Machines Corp. and $375 million to GlobalFoundries.

The Trump administration has accumulated equity stakes in 30 companies across sectors including quantum computing, steel, and rare earth minerals, with semiconductors as the primary focus. The portfolio includes a 10% stake in Intel announced about 11 months ago, and this week the administration expanded it with letters of intent for stakes in seven additional semiconductor companies that could see $874 million disbursed in return for equity. The biggest name among the new deals is Global Foundries, which is in line for a $300 million stake, marking its second government equity stake after an earlier one in quantum computing. The approach, funded by the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, marks a shift from the Biden administration's grants and loans to a venture-capital-style strategy that seeks both strategic benefits and financial upside. Critics, including the Cato Institute, question whether the government is picking favorites and what happens if companies falter, while the administration points to Intel's stock more than tripling since the stake was taken as evidence of potential taxpayer gains.

GlobalFoundries has signed a letter of intent with the U.S. Department of Commerce for a $300 million award to accelerate U.S. leadership in silicon photonics. The funding, from the CHIPS Research and Development Office, will advance next-generation optical materials, wafer technologies, and advanced packaging including 3D hybrid bonding, supporting near-packaged optics and co-packaged optics. In a separate agreement, the Commerce Department will receive equity from GlobalFoundries representing approximately 1 percent ownership. The work builds on the company's recently introduced SCALE platform and will leverage its facilities in Malta, New York, and Burlington, Vermont. Major technology firms including AMD, Broadcom, Cisco, Corning, Lumentum, Marvell, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm voiced support for the investment.

Wedbush has indicated that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing may raise prices for mature-node manufacturing processes beginning in early 2027, marking the company's first adjustment to mature-node pricing in more than three years. Final pricing decisions are expected later this year. The firm noted that any pricing increase by Taiwan Semiconductor could signal improving conditions across the mature-node foundry market and support stronger industry pricing trends, reflecting healthier demand dynamics for legacy chip production. Wedbush added that other foundry companies, including United Microelectronics, GlobalFoundries, and Tower Semiconductor, could also benefit if industry pricing strengthens.

GlobalFoundries announced the production readiness of its SLATE wafer-to-wafer bonding technology on its 9SW radio-frequency silicon-on-insulator platform. Manufactured at the company's 300mm facility in Singapore, this 3D integration solution is expected to ramp to volume production by the second half of 2027. The SLATE technology allows designers to stack and integrate large-size field-effect transistors in vertical architectures, reducing die size by up to 45%. This capability helps decrease the total design area for radio-frequency components, such as antenna tuners and amplifiers, in space-constrained 5G mobile devices. An integrated process design kit is currently available to help designers begin prototyping for next-generation mobile and wireless applications.

Kalshi contract traders remain highly skeptical that a deal will materialize before the end of the year for the U.S. government to take a stake in OpenAI or Anthropic, despite recent reports that OpenAI proposed granting a 5% stake to the Trump administration. Traders see odds of less than 30% for such a stake, according to a CNBC report. In contrast, odds are well over 60% that the government could take a stake this year in quantum computing companies Rigetti Computing or D-Wave Quantum, as well as in semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries.

GlobalFoundries announced that its SLATE wafer-to-wafer bonding technology is now production-ready on the 9SW RF silicon-on-insulator platform at its 300mm Singapore fab, enabling advanced 3D integration for compact, high-performance cellular front-ends. This step opens a path to vertically stacked RF designs that can shrink die size by up to 45%, potentially reshaping how space-constrained 5G and satellite components are engineered. The move reinforces GlobalFoundries' specialty foundry positioning in RF, power, and differentiated platforms, though it does not materially change core risks around pricing pressure in smart mobile devices or the heavy capital needs of expanding capacity. The company's narrative projects $8.6 billion revenue and $1.3 billion earnings by 2029, assuming 8.4% yearly revenue growth and an earnings increase of about $415 million from $885.0 million today. Among recent announcements, the launch of Quantum Technology Solutions with support of up to US$375 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce highlights GlobalFoundries' push to anchor itself in specialized, higher-value technologies across RF, quantum, and photonics.

President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Monday placing quantum computing at the center of U.S. economic and national security policy. The first order directs federal agencies to deliver a scientifically relevant quantum computer to the Department of Energy by 2028 and establishes the Quantum Computer for Application Development and Discovery Science initiative. The second order accelerates the deadline for migrating all crucial federal infrastructure to post-quantum cryptography standards, aiming to prevent cyberattacks from more-powerful quantum technology. These actions follow a May announcement of $2 billion in CHIPS Act grants to nine quantum companies, the largest single quantum research and development commitment in U.S. history. Three publicly traded companies—IBM, GlobalFoundries, and Palo Alto Networks—are positioned to benefit from the intersection of government funding, mandates, and timelines, though they are not pure quantum plays.

BAE Systems has successfully demonstrated that its Endura system-on-chip space processor can operate in the most severe strategic radiation environments. The milestone positions the Endura SoC as a leading high-performance processor for the space community, according to Joe Dziezynski, Space Systems product line director at BAE Systems. Developed with the company's commercial radiation-hardened 45 nanometer technology built on GlobalFoundries' 45nm silicon-on-insulator platform, the processor delivers a smaller, lower-power and more cost-effective solution for missions requiring survivability in harsh radiation. The strategic radiation-hardened testing further shows the technology can increase survivability of other space system elements, including single board computers. BAE Systems is currently accepting orders for Software Development Units featuring the Endura SoC, with work performed at its Manassas, Virginia facility, a U.S. Department of War Category 1A Microelectronics Trusted Source.

Infosys announced an expanded multi-year collaboration with GlobalFoundries to deliver AI-led managed services across GF's enterprise IT landscape. Under the engagement, Infosys will manage GF's end-to-end application, infrastructure, data and service desk operations, transitioning from externally supported operations to a true managed services model driven by AI, automation, and continuous optimization. GF selected Infosys based on its proven track record as an incumbent technology provider and its deep semiconductor domain expertise. The collaboration aims to reduce incidents, improve end-user experiences and sustainably lower total cost of ownership over the long term, helping GF move from reactive IT management to predictive and autonomous service delivery.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is staking the state's economic future on quantum computing, calling it an area where Illinois has a right to win. The state has committed $500 million to the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park, a 128-acre South Side campus that broke ground last September, backed by Argonne and Fermi national laboratories and research from the University of Chicago, Northwestern, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The park's anchor tenant, Palo Alto-based startup PsiQuantum, is building what could become the world's first utility-scale fault-tolerant quantum computer inside a 65,000-square-foot warehouse that is nearing completion. PsiQuantum raised $1 billion last November at a $7 billion valuation and received $100 million under the CHIPS and Science Act, and is partnering with GlobalFoundries to manufacture specialized photonic chips. The park has six tenants including IBM, and Pritzker cited demand for quantum software developers, cryogenic systems engineers, and fabrication technicians.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Qualinx have completed the first fully European end-to-end semiconductor manufacturing flow at GF's Dresden fab, proving that critical security chips can be produced and delivered entirely within Europe. The milestone covers aerospace, defense, and critical infrastructure applications while keeping all design data and materials within the European Union. The project is co-funded by the European Chips Act and positions Dresden as a hub for sovereign manufacturing, with a fully automated flow targeted by the end of 2026 and broader customer adoption in 2027. GLOBALFOUNDRIES is also working with Deutsche Telekom to ensure production data remains processed and stored within European networks.

Shares of Applied Materials jumped 6.7% in afternoon trading after multiple analysts raised their price targets following the company's unveiling of a new technology platform and major partnerships. Citi raised its target to $710 from $550, while Cantor Fitzgerald, Barclays, and UBS also lifted their targets. The positive sentiment was fueled by the announcement of SENZ™, an integrated visual system for AI-powered smart glasses, along with a long-term development agreement with EssilorLuxottica, a manufacturing collaboration with GlobalFoundries, and a compute integration partnership with Qualcomm. The stock closed at $597.77, up 4.8% from the previous close.