Japan plans to invest up to $21 billion in two New York semiconductor factories operated by GlobalFoundries, strengthening US chip manufacturing and US-Japan supply-chain cooperation.
Japan will invest up to $21 billion in two semiconductor manufacturing facilities in New York state, which will be jointly owned by US and Japanese interests and operated by chipmaker GlobalFoundries, the company announced. The project forms part of a broader $550 billion Japanese investment commitment to the United States under a bilateral trade agreement.
Japan will provide the full investment capital, while the US government will hold a stake in the new facilities. GlobalFoundries, which is majority-owned by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company, will earn fees for constructing and operating the factories and licensing its semiconductor manufacturing technology.
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The first facility is expected to receive approximately $10 billion in investment and is scheduled to begin operations in 2029. A further investment of around $10 billion would support the second factory. Both facilities will be located at GlobalFoundries’ site in Malta, New York, and are intended to expand US semiconductor manufacturing capacity.
GlobalFoundries Chief Executive Tim Breen said the company would manage customer relationships for the new facilities. Initial customers are expected to include Japan’s Renesas Electronics and Apple. The company also plans to prioritise US and Japanese customers while assessing demand from other markets.
The investment is part of an agreement under which Japan committed $550 billion to US projects in exchange for the reduction of tariffs on Japanese imports, including automobiles. Under the arrangement, cash flows from the investments are initially divided equally between the two countries until a specified allocation threshold is reached, after which 90% goes to the United States. Japan has already announced project packages worth more than $100 billion under the initiative.
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The initiative is also expected to benefit Japanese semiconductor equipment suppliers, including Tokyo Electron, by creating demand for manufacturing tools and related technologies. The expansion aims to strengthen domestic chip production, support supply chain resilience and deepen industrial cooperation between the two countries.