Thread regarding GlobalFoundries layoffs

Fab9 has laid off employees the last two Decembers two weeks before Christmas. Moral is at an all time low. I am waiting my turn to get let go, we were told either June or December this year. Personally I have started working like I already was told.

Some of the most senior and highest paid manufacturing technicians are the laziest and catered to employees at Fab 9. They have lost a fair share of solid employees because they protect some of the worst employees and make excuses for them. First and second line managers are complicit in this and seem to be entirely non self aware of their negative contributions to the business. Process techs don’t pull their weight, many sit around all day watching YouTube videos. Wasting money on a gym was also hilarious when the buildings are falling apart. Process techs and maintenance staff take extra breaks to use the gym and become unreachable so when tools go down, they stay down far longer than they should. The best part is that management has the audacity to lay into technicians about why the tool has been down that long, instead of reaching out to those who are ultimately responsible. When these things are brought up, we’re simply told to worry about our own departments and how we don’t have any control over other shifts or departments. But I guess none of these things matter, as long as we keep getting ice cream and pizza parties. Good job, team!

Let's see what the $1.5B US Chip Bill funding will do for the Fab 9 site. $1.5B for new fab in Malta and upgrading Fab 9 site and building GaN production line is not much money. Announcement did say GF would invest something like $10B also over the next 10 years. But the numbers don't add up. For new Fab in Malta it would cost $10B alone even if for 12nm and older capability (no EUV). Then the Fab 9 site needs many billions invested to remove buildings and clean up existing buildings and build a GaN line. $10B GF + $1.5B US govt is $11.5B. GF would need more like $15B-$20B to do everything they claim in article. More likely GF will just take the money and run and then hire more people in low-cost geos, let's see how this plays out, hopefully the US Chips Bill office will closely monitor what the funds are used for.

@OP+1

This is an interesting topic for sure. The Fab 9 site in general is very run down, office buildings are in horrible shape, windows in buildings are very energy inefficient and the overall size of the site is way too big for the number of people. Around 2000 or 2001 the site was building new buildings because they had 9500+ employees but now it is less than 2500 and many of those work from home. One is paying electricity, heating and basic maintenance on a much bigger site overall than is needed, which puts a cost burden on the competitiveness of the wafer costs coming out of the fab. Of course, the tools are outdated and running down to 130nm, possibly some 90nm limits what can go in this fab. The future really rests on the success of SiGe and GaN for the site. They need to go and bulldoze some buildings in to make the site more size appropriate and then they need to make SiGe have a strong customer base, then GaN needs to come online and be differentiated vs. competition. Lots of things listed need to happen to make Fab 9 site successful. There are outside forces working against Fab 9, it is located in a very liberal almost socialist type of state where very few work and there are very few businesses thus the working people and the businesses which are there pay more than their fair share, in general Vermont is an anti-business state so this isn't going to play well with the future of the Fab 9 site. Net, not sure what will happen with the Fab 9 site, but the outlook overall does not look good without some major changes to the site and successful execution of key technologies like GaN.