A forgotten chipmaker in US may hold key to end worldwide shortage

GlobalFoundries sits pretty with its everyday products as larger rivals battle it out to make ever-more advanced chips.

“Legacy” and “mature” are the words usually thrown at the semiconductors Tom Caulfield produces at factories in Singapore, the U.S. and Germany. He doesn’t like that.

Instead, the chief executive officer of GlobalFoundries wants people to refer to his chips as “feature-rich,” a term he feels better describes their wide array of uses. His point is valid. While larger rivals Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Samsung Electronics Co. and Intel Corp. battle it out to make ever-more advanced chips, the world is suffering most from a lack of capacity in the very products that GlobalFoundries offers.

“The industry has painted itself