Remember GF's history is not that of a greenfield startup and organic growth, but is full of acquisitions, mergers, technology licensing, and greedy, insecure, corrupt management that nourished a culture of sycophancy. GF started because some smart people convinced the Sheikh (investor) that this is a good idea to park and grow petro-dollars. Great job AMD and governments! It's not everyday you find a BIG foreign investor. But GF leaderships never had what it takes to grow the company. They wanted to be surrounded by yes-men, were thinking short term, and were happy that Sheikh kept pouring money as they were showing false growth by acquisitions and by Samsung's technology. They were all promoting their buddies/mentees and sometimes thought that hiring external people in big positions will fix things, instead of growing the right people internally. Party was going well.
Sheikh had deep pockets, lot of patience and made some bad bets on AMD, but is not stupid. After pouring money for 10 years, and after seeing his other sectors bo-m, Semiconductor dream got shattered. He started looking for an exit strategy since 2018. After failing to find a buyer at a good price, Sheikh agreed to sell 15% stake as the next step in a good year, giving the enterprise a market acceptance. All steps TC took (stopping 7nm, all divestitures) and is still taking are all short term as he thought from the beginning he won't be CEO for more than a couple of years. So now that the share price is well above IPO price, why doesn't the Sheikh cash it out and exit? Because even if he sells 5% stake, stock price will crash and he will get nothing for the rest 80%. Better for him to not sell pieces but sell the whole thing (hoping for a Elon Musk buying Twitter type, or Intel buying Tower). So the mandate for the exec team is to keep showing improving margins for 3-4 quarters, even if no revenue growth or no market share growth, so someone may think of it as a small but well run factory and buy it. That is Mubadala's bet.
But the world is smarter than Mubadala and GF management, and has no risk appetite of this level. No matter how many tricks TC shows in the name of differentiation foundry, and improving financials, it's not going to be convincing to anyone in the US. No one believes GF has any profitable stuff in the pipeline. Only solution I see is selling it to a Chinese investor if the government allows it or licensing technology again. But that will not happen in near future.
If I were top management, I would 0) FIX people. Get rid of non-performing level 10s and up. Listen to people below. Spread power down to levels 9 and 8. They can do better decision making. Couple of years ago, at a 10+ outing, it was thought of but was never acted upon. Bring more transparency in decision making. Stop unnecessary worldwide travels by 10+. 1) Invest whatever little precious R&D $ into right places. Stop stupid projects like the big IT project that is D2F (Destined to Fail), and make vendors rich. Don't pi$$ off small customers and lose whatever you have. 2) Stop this stupid glint survey and get real anonymous feedback from people. How can the engagement and attrition both be high at the same time? The survey is designed to fool the board, that look management is doing a great job, but it's not telling you real feedback. 3) Stop over focus on D&I and super quick promotions to women. It has failed to land GF a buyer, and has hurt the company more. Performance is more important. Recognize real talent and not mediocrity. 4) Stop listening to consultants like McK. We know our business better than them. Raise our strategy teams.
For middle management, only one advice: communicate openly on both sides, without fear.
For employees, quit as soon as you can, if you are not 10+ and got your stocks. If you can not, do quiet quitting. Specially younger people, do not believe in any team sweet talk and actions by the management. You do not have to put your heart and soul into a company which has a grossly untrustworthy, inefficient and unfair management.