Once, the evaluation criteria in the wafer foundry industry were straightforward: whoever first mastered more advanced process nodes was the king.
Once, the evaluation criteria in the wafer foundry industry were straightforward: whoever first mastered more advanced process nodes was the king. However, as Moore’s Law for advanced processes approaches its physical limits and costs have soared to the point that only a few giants can afford to play, those foundries that once actively or passively exited the race for 5nm and 3nm are now leveraging silicon photonics, specialty processes, and advanced packaging—riding the AI wave—to reclaim the center stage (C-position).
GlobalFoundries and Tower’s Silicon Photonics Comeback
The industry once widely circulated the view: “The end of AI is energy.” One of the key breakthroughs for improving energy efficiency lies in achieving more efficient underlying interconnects. Traditional copper interconnects have reached their physical limits, making silicon photonics the only viable path for scaling computing power in data centers. As a result, optical interconnect technology has become one of the hottest focal points in current AI infrastructure. This has created an excellent opportunity for companies like GlobalFoundries ( ) and Tower( ), which excel in specialty materials.
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