On Tuesday (8th) local time, Tom Caulfield, CEO of Global Foundries, said in a statement that the company signed more long-term cooperation agreements, with 30 customers committing a total of 3.2 billion US dollars to help the company expand production to support strong chip demand.

In 2021, Global Foundries "accelerated our business plan by leveraging the need for pervasive semiconductor solutions and playing a key role in the semiconductor supply chain," Caulfield said, according to Barron's. "We have executed well and believe we will deliver strong revenue and earnings growth in 2022."

Global Foundries chief financial officer David Reeder said the current chip shortage will not be resolved in 2022. He noted that end-market demand is growing at a mid- to high-single-digit rate, but in the markets where Global Foundries operates, currently announced capacity additions will only increase by 4% per year over the next five years.

Reeder also said that in 2021, about 15 million silicon wafers will be used for chips in the 12nm-90nm line width range, and this does not include cutting-edge technologies for microprocessors and memory chips. Assuming demand grows by 8% per year, that's about 1.2 million tablets. Roughly calculated, this is equivalent to three new chip factories every year. If geopolitical risks are taken into account, more chip factories need to be built - as Reeder points out, about 70% of the world's semiconductors are produced in Taiwan, China.

According to the latest financial report released by Global Foundries, its revenue in the fourth quarter of 2021 was 1.85 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 74% and a month-on-month increase of 9%, which was higher than Wall Street's consensus forecast of 1.81 billion US dollars; adjusted earnings per share were 0.18 US dollars , higher than Wall Street consensus of $0.11; Adjusted Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) was $584 million, up 251% year-over-year; gross margin was 20.7%, up from 17.6% in the third quarter and the prior year -20.5% in the same period; silicon wafer shipments increased by 5% over the same period last year.

For the full year of 2021, Global Foundries achieved revenue of $6.59 billion, an increase of 36% over 2020. The full-year adjusted loss per share was 5 cents, narrower than the 2020 loss of $2.70 per share.

In addition, the company expects third-quarter revenue of $1.88 billion to $1.92 billion, gross margin of 20.9%, and adjusted EPS of 21 cents to 27 cents. Previously, Wall Street's consensus estimate was for earnings of 17 cents a share on revenue of $1.85 billion.