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dylan.mcgrath
Not that I have seen. I don't expect they will provide information that is that ...
selinz
Any indicatation on how much of that 1.2B was lost last year?
Report: Abu Dhabi's chip unit still in the red
Dylan McGrath
5/9/2012 12:09 PM EDT
SAN FRANCISCO—Advanced Technology Investment Co. (ATIC), the semiconductor unit of the Abu Dhabi government's Mubadala investment fund, lost money in each of the last two years and has accumulated a deficit that stood at about $1.12 billion at the end of 2011, according to a report by the Reuters news service that cited a regulatory filing.
In the filing, Mubadala said there can be no assurance that ATIC will be profitable in 2012 or subsequent years, according to the Reuters report.
ATIC is the parent company of Globalfoundries Inc. The firm became the sole owner of the former chip manufacturing unit of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) last year, when AMD gave up its remaining stake in Globalfoundries in exchange for the right to have 28-nm products built by other foundries. Previously a clause in the wafer supply agreement between AMD and Globalfoundries required that AMD have certain 28-nm chips built by Globalfoundries.
In addition to Globalfoundries, ATIC is also one of several investors in Calxeda, a developer of low power server chips.
Globalfoundries, which does not report financial results, agreed to amend the wafer supply agreement with AMD after a tumultuous period in the relationship between the two companies. AMD said last year that low yields on 32-nm products built by Globalfoundries hurt AMD's sales.
Many observers interpreted the new supply agreement with AMD as a blow to Globalfoundries. However, AMD has said that, despite the amended wafer supply agreement, it expects to spend more on wafers with Globalfoundries in 2012 than it did in 2011. Others have speculated that the decoupling from AMD will enable Globalfoundries to land deals with customers who were previously wary of doing business with a foundry partially owned by a competitor.
Globalfoundries plans to significantly increase its production capacity later this year when its Fab 8 in upstate New York ramps to volume production. U.S. President Barack Obama was to have visited Fab 8 Tuesday (May 8), but the visit was moved to the nearby CNSE NanoTech Complex at the State University of New York in Albany for what the White House termed "logistical reasons."
In the filing, Mubadala said there can be no assurance that ATIC will be profitable in 2012 or subsequent years, according to the Reuters report.
ATIC is the parent company of Globalfoundries Inc. The firm became the sole owner of the former chip manufacturing unit of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) last year, when AMD gave up its remaining stake in Globalfoundries in exchange for the right to have 28-nm products built by other foundries. Previously a clause in the wafer supply agreement between AMD and Globalfoundries required that AMD have certain 28-nm chips built by Globalfoundries.
In addition to Globalfoundries, ATIC is also one of several investors in Calxeda, a developer of low power server chips.
Globalfoundries, which does not report financial results, agreed to amend the wafer supply agreement with AMD after a tumultuous period in the relationship between the two companies. AMD said last year that low yields on 32-nm products built by Globalfoundries hurt AMD's sales.
Many observers interpreted the new supply agreement with AMD as a blow to Globalfoundries. However, AMD has said that, despite the amended wafer supply agreement, it expects to spend more on wafers with Globalfoundries in 2012 than it did in 2011. Others have speculated that the decoupling from AMD will enable Globalfoundries to land deals with customers who were previously wary of doing business with a foundry partially owned by a competitor.
Globalfoundries plans to significantly increase its production capacity later this year when its Fab 8 in upstate New York ramps to volume production. U.S. President Barack Obama was to have visited Fab 8 Tuesday (May 8), but the visit was moved to the nearby CNSE NanoTech Complex at the State University of New York in Albany for what the White House termed "logistical reasons."
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danlutes
5/9/2012 3:33 PM EDT
Dylan,
Very interesting insight to ATIC.
BTW, it looks like you have an extra "owned" in the sentence:
"...customers who were previously owned wary of doing business with a foundry partially owned by ..."
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dylan.mcgrath
5/9/2012 5:46 PM EDT
Thanks for pointing that out. It has been corrected.
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mike655mm
5/9/2012 6:57 PM EDT
It's a pretty tough, risky business
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goafrit
5/10/2012 6:05 AM EDT
Yes. Fab is not the business of today. Better run a website than going into fab. It is the most challenging business anyone can get into
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SiliconAsia
5/9/2012 7:21 PM EDT
I agree with Mike, It looks like ATIC may not be able to recoup the investment for long - ATIC has two investments - 1) AMD and 2) GF. Since AMD actually made some money in 2011, this loss must be coming from GF side only. Imagine GF lost $1.12B out ~$3.5B revenue! This is not sustainable business!
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daleste
5/9/2012 8:14 PM EDT
I guess that is why AMD spun off their fabs. It takes a lot of work and money to keep a fab full and profitable. Maybe with AMD no longer a part owner, they can pick up additional customers.
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dylan.mcgrath
5/10/2012 2:28 AM EDT
@SiliconAsia- I think this comment is off base. ATIC, I believe, doesn't own any of AMD. Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi government invest firm that also owns ATIC, owns a little more than 19 percent of AMD, according Mubadala"s website.
http://mubadala.ae/portfolio/capital/assets/advanced_micro_devices_amd
The ATIC deficit of $1.2 billion is cumulative, through its history, since its establishment in 2008.
However, I think we can extrapolate from this report that Globalfoundries has yet to turn a profit. And, like mike655mm, I agree that foundry is a tough business.
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dylan.mcgrath
5/10/2012 2:30 AM EDT
To clarify above comment, when Mubadala reported that ATIC lost money for the past two years and is $1.2 billion in the hole, that is completely separate from AMD's performance.
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selinz
5/10/2012 5:30 PM EDT
Any indicatation on how much of that 1.2B was lost last year?
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dylan.mcgrath
5/14/2012 11:58 PM EDT
Not that I have seen. I don't expect they will provide information that is that specific.
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