AMD AND GLOBALFOUNDARIES (GF) have announced a change to the Wafer Supply Agreement (WSA), which removes all exclusive arrangements. GF was originally part of AMD; the split came in 2009, but AMD retained a third ownership. At first the pair were close, and AMD was to move most of its business to GF. But the two fell out, and AMD sold its interest in GF in 2012, so it could shop elsewhere. GF struggled to keep pace with AMD’s technical developments. When AMD reached 14nm, production was licensed to Samsung. Since then, GF has been left making I/O and legacy chips. AMD moved to TSMC for 7nm and below, but was obliged to use GF for all 14nm business. This it no longer has to do, though it has agreed to buy a minimum number of chips until 2024. The two firms have had a rocky relationship: AMD has had to pay GF off more than once, and GF has been obliged to develop production capacity it can’t easily re-use. The split is finally complete.
–CL