GlobalFoundries boosts SiGe capacity for Marvell optical transceivers for AI data centers

GlobalFoundries and Marvell have expanded their collaboration under a multi-year agreement to increase manufacturing capacity for GlobalFoundries’ silicon germanium (SiGe) technology at its Burlington, Vermont, facility. The added SiGe capacity is aimed at supporting demand for next-generation optical connectivity used in AI infrastructure.

The companies said the expanded work targets high-performance SiGe used in next-generation pluggable optical transceivers, Near-Packaged Optics (NPO), and Co-packaged Optics (CPO). The agreement builds on existing production and is expected to add significant capacity to support Marvell’s growing requirements.

For data center operators, this sits squarely in the “interconnect is the system” reality of modern AI clusters: as accelerators scale out, link bandwidth, latency, and power per bit become design constraints that can cap usable compute. Increasing foundry capacity for the RF/analog process technology that underpins optical components doesn’t change rack layouts overnight, but it can affect how quickly higher-speed optics designs make it from roadmap into volume availability.

GlobalFoundries said its SiGe portfolio is designed for optical networking applications that need high-frequency performance, signal integrity, and power efficiency. The company’s current SiGe technology supports 200G-per-lane optical connectivity, with a roadmap intended to address higher-speed generations. GlobalFoundries also said it has manufactured advanced SiGe for more than a decade and is co-integrating SiGe, silicon photonics, and advanced packaging for optical connectivity architectures including NPO and CPO.

“Our expanded collaboration with GF will help ensure we have the SiGe technology and manufacturing capacity to support the significant growth we see ahead,” said Robb Johnson, vice president, Foundry Technology, Marvell. Shankaran Janardhanan, senior vice president of Photonics & RF businesses at GlobalFoundries, said the agreement “reflects the critical role SiGe technology plays in enabling high-speed optical networking for AI infrastructure,” and added that GlobalFoundries will continue investing in its technology roadmap and manufacturing capabilities “both in the U.S. and around the world.”

GlobalFoundries and Marvell said the expanded agreement builds on more than a decade of collaboration.