GlobalFoundries in focus as Wedbush praises New York fab deal

GlobalFoundries (GFS) was in focus on Thursday as Wedbush Securities praised the company's announcement to build two semiconductor fabs in New York via financing from Japan.

Shares fell 2.7% in premarket trading.

“The new fab structure is clearly additive to GF's operating model,” Wedbush Securities analyst Matt Bryson wrote in a note to clients. “The question rather in our view is with new capacity seemingly being dictated by government interests rather than customer demand, could the addition of a new large fab (or fabs) create a premature end to what we believe otherwise is setting up to be a favorable supply/demand dynamic for mature fabs given growing requirements from new technology (optics, data center power, physical AI, AI enabled IoT and consumer devices, etc.).”

Bryson, who reiterated his Neutral rating and $72 price target on GlobalFoundries, added that the announcement “layers a capital-light, multi-decade earnings stream on top of a model we already believe understates GF’s intermediate-term growth, and we see upside to our longer-term numbers should the deal close as outlined.”

GlobalFoundries said Wednesday that it plans to open two semiconductor fabrication plants in Malta, N.Y., supported by up to $21B in financing from Japan. Roughly $10B of the investment will be used in the construction of a chip factory scheduled to open in 2029, with the remaining $10B intended to fund a second plant.

The financing was enabled by a trade and investment agreement between the Trump administration and the Japanese government, GlobalFoundries added.