US chip manufacturer GlobalFoundries said on Monday (Nov 17) it has acquired Advanced Micro Foundry (AMF), a Singapore-based chipmaker that focuses on silicon photonics, a fast-growing field that is being used in artificial intelligence data centres and quantum computers.
GlobalFoundries did not disclose financial details of the deal.
Silicon photonics technology can be used to integrate traditional computing chip technologies with optical networking technologies that use pulses of light to transmit data.
The field is growing quickly, with Nvidia working with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing to package together some of its networking chips with optical connections.
A range of well-funded Silicon Valley startups such as Ayar Labs, Celestial AI and Lightmatter are also pursuing the optical connections between chips, some of them using GlobalFoundries as a manufacturer.
