GlobalFoundries (Nasdaq: GFS) and Marvell Technology (Nasdaq: MRVL) said on Wednesday that they are expanding their long-running silicon germanium (SiGe) production deal, with fresh capacity at GF's Burlington, Vermont fab earmarked for Marvell's next generation of optical connectivity chips. The two companies did not disclose dollar figures, but described the addition as “significant capacity” to keep pace with Marvell's growing pipeline.
Silicon germanium is the AI data center's plumbing
SiGe is the high-performance analog and radio-frequency process that Marvell uses to build near-packaged optics, co-packaged optics and pluggable optical transceivers running at 200 gigabits per second per lane, with a roadmap to still higher speeds. Every one of those parts sits between AI accelerators and the switches that stitch them into training clusters, and the volumes tied to Nvidia-, Google- and Amazon-scale data centers have outrun the industry's SiGe supply.
What Burlington gets
The Burlington site is the anchor of GF's SiGe franchise, a 200mm fab that GF has been steadily reinvesting in as compute-adjacent RF and analog demand has climbed. GF and Marvell first announced a multi-year SiGe supply agreement in 2023 to shore up long-term capacity; Wednesday's expansion loops in the additional 200G-per-lane roadmap alongside near-packaged and co-packaged optics.
Quotes and context
“AI is fundamentally changing the way data centers are built, and connectivity is increasingly critical,” Marvell's optical general manager Robb Johnson said in the joint release. GF product management vice-president Shankaran Janardhanan called SiGe “where GF's decades of leadership translate directly into breakthrough optical performance.” The expansion follows a busy week for Marvell that included its $12.2 billion custom-chip warrant deal with Google.
Reporting based on coverage from GlobalNewswire, The Star and Inside AI News.