GlobalFoundries expands SiGe capacity with Marvell at its Vermont fab, targeting AI data center optical transceivers and co-packaged optics demand.
Research Desk
GlobalFoundries' Burlington, Vermont manufacturing facility is emerging as a critical domestic production node for optical semiconductor components, following the announcement of an expanded multi-year silicon germanium capacity agreement with Marvell Technology aimed squarely at the accelerating demand for high-speed connectivity inside artificial intelligence data centers.
The two companies have worked together for more than a decade, and this latest agreement extends that relationship in both scale and scope. The expanded deal is expected to add significant manufacturing capacity to support Marvell's growing production requirements, though neither party disclosed specific volume commitments or the financial terms underpinning the arrangement. Marvell Technology, listed on Nasdaq under the ticker MRVL, describes itself as a leader in data infrastructure semiconductor solutions. GlobalFoundries, which trades on Nasdaq as GFS and maintains its headquarters in Malta, New York, operates fabrication facilities across the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Silicon germanium, commonly referred to as SiGe, is the specific process technology at the center of this deal. GlobalFoundries states that its SiGe portfolio delivers the high-frequency performance, signal integrity, and power efficiency that advanced optical networking applications demand. The company has been manufacturing advanced SiGe technology for over a decade.
The current SiGe technology at GlobalFoundries supports 200G-per-lane optical connectivity. The company says a roadmap is already in place to address higher-speed generations as bandwidth requirements inside AI and cloud data centers continue to climb. GlobalFoundries also highlighted its capacity to co-integrate SiGe with silicon photonics and advanced packaging to support emerging optical connectivity architectures as they develop.
Both companies structured the announcement around a shared argument: as artificial intelligence systems scale in size and complexity, moving data efficiently between components is becoming as consequential to overall system performance as the compute accelerators at the core of those systems. Modern AI data centers, the announcement noted, operate as distributed compute environments where high-speed interconnects play a defining role in what the system can ultimately deliver.
The expanded SiGe capacity is intended specifically for next-generation pluggable optical transceivers, near-packaged optics, and co-packaged optics. These three form factors were identified by both companies as central to the next wave of AI and cloud data center design. Robb Johnson, Vice President of Foundry Technology at Marvell, described the optical networking sector as one where the company is committing significant resources.
"As the industry moves toward higher-bandwidth optical architectures, including NPO and CPO, Marvell is investing aggressively to lead this transition," Johnson said in the announcement. "Our expanded collaboration with GF will help ensure we have the SiGe technology and manufacturing capacity to support the significant growth we see ahead."
GlobalFoundries used the occasion to underscore how its background in radio frequency and analog semiconductor manufacturing informs its optical technology offering. Shankaran Janardhanan, Senior Vice President of Photonics and RF businesses at GlobalFoundries, characterized SiGe as the point where the company's accumulated RF and analog expertise translates into measurable gains in optical performance.
"This agreement reinforces our long-standing relationship with Marvell and reflects the critical role SiGe technology plays in enabling high-speed optical networking for AI infrastructure," Janardhanan said. He added that GlobalFoundries plans to continue investing in both its technology roadmap and its manufacturing capabilities across its domestic and international sites.
The Burlington facility's designation as the named production site for the expanded capacity reinforces its role as a key American manufacturing resource for optical semiconductor components serving the AI sector.
Near-Packaged Optics and Co-packaged Optics are two architectural approaches the semiconductor and data center industries have been developing as alternatives to conventional pluggable transceiver designs. Both aim to cut the power consumption and latency involved in moving optical signals within and between servers and switching equipment operating at high data rates.
By securing expanded SiGe manufacturing specifically for these form factors, Marvell is indicating its intent to occupy a leading supplier position as hyperscale data center operators begin deploying these technologies at scale.
GlobalFoundries, by committing Vermont fabrication capacity to support that objective, is aligning its domestic infrastructure with the optical components that next-generation AI clusters will depend upon. Neither company provided a timeline for when the additional capacity would be operational, nor did they specify data rate targets beyond the 200G-per-lane capability already in production at the Burlington facility.
The Marvell agreement arrives amid a concentrated stretch of partnership activity for GlobalFoundries in September 2026. Earlier in the month, the company announced a manufacturing partnership with Monolithic Power Systems to scale high-performance power solutions. On September 8, GlobalFoundries also announced it had finalized a definitive agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce's CHIPS Research and Development program for a USD 375 million award directed at advancing American quantum leadership.
The accumulation of announcements points to a company actively expanding its strategic partner roster across several high-growth semiconductor segments, with AI infrastructure connectivity now joining power management and quantum computing as explicitly named priority areas for the foundry.
Strategic Partnership Expansion in SiGe Manufacturing for AI Data Center Optical Connectivity
North America
Semiconductor
18 September 2026
4 min read
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