Malta

The Abu Dhabi owners of GlobalFoundries visited the company's Fab 8 computer chip factory in Saratoga County on Monday and made the case that the facility is a national asset deserving of future federal support.

The visit, headlined by Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the CEO of Mubadala Investment Co., the Abu Dhabi investment fund that owns GlobalFoundries, comes at a critical time for GlobalFoundries, which employs 3,300 people in the town of Malta.

The company, which is in the process of launching its next-generation 7 nanometer chip technology, is expanding manufacturing capacity at the factory by 20 percent this year as it works to utilize all 460,000 square feet of available clean room space at the $12 billion campus.

But for Mubadala and Al Mubarak to spend potentially $10 billion more to build a second fab in Malta, it appears they are now ready to turn to the federal government for financial support after New York state provided an initial incentive package of $1.2 billion back in 2006.

This time around, industry experts say, a second GlobalFoundries fab in New York could command double that assistance based on what other countries like India, Germany or Singapore could offer for a similar facility.

"This is a deeply competitive and globally strategic industry with many nations deploying significant resources to develop their own industries," Al Mubarak said during a family-style luncheon speech he gave to several hundred company executives and local business and political leaders. "However, I am confident that the quality and depth of the ecosystem here, the committed workforce, and regional and national government backing of Tech Valley will enable us to remain at the absolute forefront of the industry."

Although Al Mubarak was scheduled to meet with Gov. Andrew Cuomo in Albany immediately following the Fab 8 event, he and others from his delegation will be in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday and Wednesday to make their pitch directly to federal officials, including potentially the White House.

Al Mubarak shared the spotlight at the event with U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, the Democrat from Amsterdam whose district includes Fab 8 as well as SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Albany, where Fab 8 does its research and development.

Their comments echoed the recommendation of Georgetown University economics researcher Charles Wessner, who released a book last week about the history of the local semiconductor industry that called SUNY Poly and Fab 8 national treasures that need continued investment by both the private and public sector.

"We have to make certain that we don't dull the competitive edge here by standing still," Tonko said after the luncheon while standing in the lobby of Fab 8. "This is a unique partnership in that it started in the middle so to speak with the state government and local governments being invested. Now we need to show what involvement the federal government can and should have."

It is not clear what type of financial support GlobalFoundries could seek from the federal government, although there is a major incentive for the government to make sure that GlobalFoundries flourishes and grows larger in the United States.

The company is the Department of Defense's so-called Trusted Foundry as the exclusive maker of high-end chips for military equipment. GlobalFoundries' current contract with the Defense Department is valued as high as $755 million.

Al Mubarak and other Abu Dhabi officials noted that the United Arab Emirates and the United States do $24.3 billion in trade annually, with $20 billion of that exports from the U.S. to the UAE.

"Hopefully the White House will hear that too," Al Mubarak said without mentioning President Trump, who has made fighting trade imbalances with other countries one of his major economic policy objectives.

One of the biggest issues facing GlobalFoundries at its Malta site is the need for additional power and gas lines for a second factory.

Tonko was asked what federal support for GlobalFoundries might pay for, although no dollar amounts have been mentioned yet by anyone — or which federal agencies might fund the request, although the Department of Energy could likely be a potential source.

"Primarily I think it could (pay for) human infrastructure, research and development and utility infrastructure," Tonko said.