GlobalFoundries Taps Morgan Stanley for Jumbo IPO

(Bloomberg) -- GlobalFoundries is working with Morgan Stanley on an initial public offering that could value the chipmaker at about $30 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter.

No final decision has been made and the company’s plans could change, said the person, who asked to not be identified because the matter isn’t public.

GlobalFoundries is backed by Abu Dhabi sovereign fund Mubadala Investment Co. Mubadala had started preparations for a U.S. IPO of the company and is in discussions with potential advisers, Bloomberg News reported in April.

A representative for GlobalFoundries declined to comment. Mubadala didn’t respond to a request to its general inquiry email outside regular business hours while a representative for Morgan Stanley didn’t immediately have a comment.

The chipmaker is coming to market as numerous industries complain they can’t get enough semiconductor supply and governments across the globe gear up to provide financial support for expansions in production.

Globalfoundries’ biggest rivals, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung Electronics, are struggling to keep up with demand for outsourced chipmaking demand.

The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index has been on a tear, tripling since 2016.

GlobalFoundries was created when Mubadala bought Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s manufacturing facilities in 2009 and later combined them with Singapore’s Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd.

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