The two industry heavyweights aim to advance the domestic supply chain in the U.S. for national security systems.
American aerospace and defense corporation Lockheed Martin and fellow American chipmaker GlobalFoundries have announced a strategic partnership to secure a domestic supply chain for chips in national defense systems. According to a joint press release, the two companies will leverage GlobalFoundries’ expertise and advanced technologies to “increase anti-fragility in microelectronics systems and supply chains.” These technologies include the usage of silicon photonics for low-power and high-speed data transport as well as gallium nitride on silicon to make chips work at higher performance temperatures.
Amidst geopolitical tensions and supply chain disruptions, defense companies and the U.S. military have advocated for domestic supply chains of raw materials and advanced technologies to reduce the dependency on countries like China which dominates the rare earths industry, for example. Congress funded a project earlier this year aimed to improve the supply of critical minerals to the U.S. military. The collaboration between Lockheed Martin and Globalfoundries now aligns two major players in their respective industries with the U.S. government’s CHIPS and Science Act, which aims to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to the United States. The Act provides nearly $50 billion in government subsidies for U.S. semiconductor production and an investment tax credit for manufacturing plants of around $24 billion.
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