GF pivoted 5 years ago, and has been downhill since. Lost good people, lost some operations, lost big customers, and failed with derivatives play. Yes but it was able to carry out DEI, advance many women to senior leadership roles, maintain the same CEO, and go 15% public thanks to covid bo-m, and recently complain to EU for giving subsidies to TSMC. A slow death...
8 replies (most recent on top)
It is bad leadership everywhere that I see. Everyone is focused on cost cutting and nobody on leadership/differentiated technologies. The ship is sinking and rapidly at GF!!!!
GF is dying slow death. Attrition continues high double digit. Bad leadership particularly in Malta has already ki-led the it’s edge.
Citigroup too
Citigroup Inc. Sells 27,631 Shares of GLOBALFOUNDRIES Inc. (NASDAQ:GFS)
Citigroup Inc. lowered its position in GLOBALFOUNDRIES Inc. (NASDAQ:GFS - Free Report) by 16.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC.
The down hill journey is causing index funds to pull out as expected. This is sign of potential crash ahead. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC Reduces Position in GLOBALFOUNDRIES Inc. by 37.6% in First Quarter 2023.
Why does anyone buy stock like GFS that doesn't pay dividend? It's just a piece of paper waiting for someone d-mber than you to buy.
One could argue both ways for the pivot, the real problem with leading edge for GF was economy of scale, with not enough fabs/wafers in leading edge the development cost was too much. One either had to figure out more demand to drive 1-2 fabs fully filled with leading edge and fix economy of scale or pull out of leading edge, GF of course chose the latter option.
The problem with having 12nm and larger only is you must have differentiated technologies since there are many competitors in those nodes, however, GF doesn't have differentiated technologies, so we are playing in a limited market size and we aren't the top dog in any of those technology categories. Now when you are a bottom feeder in lagging edge technologies you must be cheapest which GF is far off from being. Houston we have a problem ......
I don't see a path forward for GF, 12nm tech is behind the industry for offerings and Malta fab will be in trouble. In addition, not having any leadership technologies in 200mm, Singapore Fab 2 and Vermont Fab 9 will both be in trouble moving into future. Then the biggest issue is much of the experienced talent has left GF so even if they wanted to be differentiated, they don't have the staffing talent left to execute on this.
Over time I see GF having to sell off various fabs to stay afloat and eventually dissolving to the point where nothing is left, basically a huge yard/garage sale until the end comes. Smart people will jump ship and not wait for it to sink!!
Going public was the final nail in the coffin for this company. That was the only thing that ever mattered to the executives and CEO. Since going public everything at global has been about cost reduction and squeezing the most out of it's employees to reduce headcount. Meanwhile These jokers sell 18million in shares in a month and talk about how bad the outlook is for 2024 because we cannot save money as a company.
This place gets worse everyday and will continue to lose people from overstress and low morale from higher paying and lower stress jobs nearby. Stewarts starting pay is 18/hr plus great benefits. Harbor Freight starting pay is 27/hr plus training and benefits. Amazon / Walmart / Target warehouses are currently hiring at 27/hour for easy positions.
Globalfoundries continues to threaten its employees with looming layoffs and terrible raises while talking about how crucial employee wellness is to them. What a joke!
The pivot was a big mistake, it was driven by a board fed up with past failures and a SLT of yesmen and even less qualified women. The bigger mistake though was building Malta in the first place. Buying IBM fabs bought GF some RF customers and time, but not enough to fill such a huge fab alone without leading edge nodes.