GlobalFoundries stops development 7nm, 5nm and 3nm

Chip manufacturer GlobalFoundries has stopped developing its 7nm process. Mass production of 7nm chips at the GlobalFoundries factories should have started at the end of this year. The chip manufacturer will focus on the existing 14nm and 12nm lines.

Thanks to production at 14nm and 12nm, GlobalFoundries should become more profitable, the company says. That’s why the company’s top engineers will work to further develop the 14nm and 12nm lines for customers, rather than focusing their energies on getting the new 7nm process ready for production or exploring the possibilities in 5nm and 3nm. Those chips at 14nm and 12nm are intended for customers in markets such as 5G, internet-of-things and cars.

GlobalFoundries, a spin-off of AMD, has been losing money for years and is owned by an investment company. The manufacturer cannot compete with much larger competitors such as Samsung and TSMC. TSMC is currently already working on the production of chips at 7nm for customers such as Huawei and possibly Apple. Samsung also wants to make socs at 7nm for its own Exynos division and possibly for Qualcomm.

This is a major change in the strategy of GlobalFoundries, whereby the manufacturer will also enter into new contract negotiations with customers such as IBM and AMD on, among other things, intellectual property. In addition, one in twenty employees has to leave. Many of the jobs being lost are in R&D departments, Anandtech reports. The round of layoffs follows layoffs earlier this year.

GlobalFoundries is a small player in the chip manufacturers market and has never been the first to introduce a new process. It had planned to start mass production at 7nm by the end of this year, but that production will not go ahead now.