AMD Amends Wafer Supply Agreement with GlobalFoundries: 7nm Freed, 12nm+ Targets Set

[harlan4096]

AMD on Tuesday said it had amended its wafer supply agreement with GlobalFoundries. Under the terms of the new deal, the two companies agreed about prices and volumes of wafers that AMD will purchase from the U.S.-based foundry through at least 2021. The seventh such wafer amendment between the two parties, it marks the latest shift in how the two companies do business with each other amidst changing business strategies on both sides. However it also won't be the last; while the latest amendment sets purchase targets through 2021, the overall WSA itself will still run through March 1, 2024.

The big news with the latest WSA update is that it allows AMD to contract any foundry to produce chips at 7 nm and thinner nodes without any one-time payments or royalties to GlobalFoundries. GlonbalFoundries, of course, announced last year that they were getting out of the race for cutting-edge manufacturing nodes, including 7nm, potentially putting AMD in a long-term bind as their high-end products require competitive manufacturing processes. As a result there has been a big question in how AMD and GlobalFoundries would resolve this dispute, and the latest WSA revision finally supplies the answer.

The net result is that as of this moment, AMD has slated all of their currently-announced leading-edge 7nm CPUs and GPUs to use TSMC's 7nm process, and AMD is further free to tap Samsung as well if they desire. Past that, the latest WSA update will see AMD continue to rely heavily on GlobalFoundries for any larger nodes, as the firm will remain AMD’s long-term strategic supplier for 12nm and above. The new agreement sets purchase commitments by AMD and prices by GlobalFoundries through 2021.

Full reading: https://www.anandtech.com/show/13915/amd...-till-2021