[News] GlobalFoundries Reportedly Sees Silicon Photonics Revenue Doubling in 2026, Passing $1B by 2028

As major foundries including TSMC and Samsung accelerate their push into silicon photonics, specialty chipmaker GlobalFoundries continues to build steady momentum. According to the Investing.com transcript, management increasingly views silicon photonics as a core growth engine, expecting revenue to roughly double in 2026 and potentially exceed US$1 billion by the end of 2028.

For reference, during the Q&A session at the May 5 earnings call, analysts also pointed to expectations of roughly US$400 million in revenue contribution in 2026.

As highlighted by Yahoo Finance, GlobalFoundries’ silicon photonics portfolio is gaining fast traction, driven by the industry’s shift toward pluggable and co-packaged optics as AI data center networking demands continue to scale rapidly.

CEO Tim Breen, cited by the Investing.com, said that GF is now designed in at three of the top four pluggable optical transceiver companies, with customers continuing to report strong feedback on its pluggable portfolio supporting 1.6T solutions and a clear roadmap toward 3.2T and beyond.

Notably, GlobalFoundries said in its press release that it has launched its SCALE (Silicon Photonics Co-packaged Advanced Light Engine) optical module solution for CPO in May. The company described SCALE as the industry’s first Optical Compute Interconnect (OCI) MSA–compliant platform purpose-built for modern AI scale-up architectures. Through SCALE, GF aims to enable high-bandwidth, energy-efficient connectivity at scale for its customers.

As reported by Reuters, for the June quarter, GlobalFoundries forecasts revenue of about $1.76 billion, plus or minus $25 million, slightly above LSEG-compiled estimates of $1.74 billion. The Malta, New York-based foundry reported Q1 revenue of $1.63 billion, broadly in line with market expectations, the report adds.

In addition, management reiterated its target to exit 2026 with gross margins at or above the 30% level, according to Yahoo Finance.

Pricing Outlook

Notably, as mature-node foundries such as UMC and TSMC’s VIS move to raise prices, GlobalFoundries also weighed in on its pricing outlook. According to the Investing.com transcript, CEO Tim Breen said a large portion of GF’s portfolio is governed by long-term agreements that have remained stable for years and are expected to stay broadly unchanged.

However, Breen noted that a smaller segment tied to short-term pricing is seeing tightening supply-demand dynamics, creating a more favorable pricing environment. In line with peers and customers, the company plans to implement price increases in this segment, likely beginning in the second half of 2026 and extending into 2027, Breen added.

In addition, he also revealed that for capacity-constrained areas with stronger demand, GF is also engaging customers on broader terms—not only pricing, but also advance payments to secure supply as CapEx is ramped in constrained technologies such as FDX (Fully Depleted Silicon-On-Insulator), silicon photonics, and high-performance silicon germanium.

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(Photo credit: GlobalFoundries)