U.S.-headquartered semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries announced on Tuesday that it will build a new fabrication plant in Singapore, injecting a jaw-dropping US$4 billion of new investment to meet the unprecedented global demand for chips. The partnership with the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) is expected to create 1,000 new jobs.
The new fab, located in its existing Woodlands campus, is under construction and is expected to start production in January 2023. GlobalFoundries CEO Tom Caulfield said – “Our new facility in Singapore will support fast-growing end-markets in the automotive, 5G mobility and secure device segments with long-term customer agreements already in place.”
The world is short of semiconductors, which are critical components that power all kinds of electronics, from smartphones to computers to video games to the brake sensors in cars. The US$4 billion investment in Singapore is part of GlobalFoundries’ US$6 billion plan to expand capacity at its factories in Singapore, Germany and the United States amid a microchip shortage.
GlobalFoundries is one of global foundries that are contracted by semiconductor firms to build chips. It manufactures semiconductors designed by giants like AMD, Qualcomm and Broadcom. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), is the world’s biggest foundry by market share (56%), followed by Samsung (18%), UMC (7%) and GlobalFoundries (7%).
Singapore contributes about one-third of GlobalFoundries’ revenue and serves about 200 customers worldwide. Intel announced in March a US$20 billion investment in two new U.S. chipmaking facilities at its Arizona campus, while Taiwan’s TSMC said in April it will invest US$100 billion over the next three years to expand its chip fabrication capacity.
At the moment, only TSMC and Samsung have the ability to manufacture the most advanced chips. Last month, TSMC, together with National Taiwan University (NTU), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced a significant breakthrough in the development of 1-nanometer chips, just a month after IBM claimed it had developed 2-nanometer semiconductor.
As the world’s go-to foundry for many cutting-edge semiconductors, TSMC produces microchips for big boys like Apple, Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), MediaTek and Qualcomm. As the world’s largest foundry, TSMC accounted for 54% of total foundry revenue globally last year. And thanks to TSMC, Taiwan commanded more than 60% of total global foundry revenue in 2020.
In comparison, Samsung Electronics announced in January that it was considering investing more than US$10 billion in Texas, U.S., in preparation to manufacture chips as advanced as 3-nanometer in the future. Presently, the most advanced chips in production are 5-nanometer. While Asian players have already moved ahead, Intel is still trying to perfect its next-generation 7-nanometer chip.
Interestingly, Mubadala Investment Company, the owner of GlobalFoundries, was previously involved in the infamous 1MDB scandal in neighbouring Malaysia. Mubadala Investment Managing Director and Group CEO Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, who attended a virtual groundbreaking ceremony for the Singapore plant, was one of the names exposed in audio recordings implicating former Malaysian PM Najib Razak in the scandal.
Mubadala Investment Company was established in January 2017 after a merger between Mubadala Development Company (MDC) and International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), a wholly owned investment vehicle of the government of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It was formed after Khadem al-Qubaisi, ex-managing director of IPIC, was arrested over his and the company’s involvement in the 1MDB scandal.
In 2012, IPIC guarantees two bonds worth US$1.75 billion each for 1MDB which helped the Malaysian state investment firm to raise funds for the acquisition of power-generation assets. In addition to the US$3.5 billion of principal, it also includes US$2 billion in interests. Therefore, IPIC’s exposure was US$5.5 billion in a so-called debt-for-asset swap.
But Edra Energy was sold off cheaply for RM9.83 billion to China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN), when 1MDB had bought it at a higher price at RM12 billion. Then Bandar Malaysia, a valuable and strategic 486-acre of the old Sungai Besi airport land, too, was sold to another Chinese company – China Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC).
To make matters worse, between 2012 and 2014, 1MDB had paid a whopping US$3.5 billion to the fake Aabar Investments PJS Limited BVI, supposedly a unit of IPIC. By December 2015, relations between IPIC and 1MDB become strained over missing monies and failure of Malaysia government under Najib administration to settle payment over a US$1.2 billion loan from Abu Dhabi.
On April 11, 2016, all hell broke loose. In response to Najib government’s insistence that Aabar had received payments from 1MDB, IPIC released a statement to the London Stock Exchange that Aabar BVI, to which 1MDB had paid the money, was not part of its corporate group and that it had not received any 1MDB money via Aabar BVI. It was a scam from the beginning.
Apparently Aabar BVI (Aabar Investment PJS Ltd) was not a subsidiary of IPIC at all, but a dummy company set up by Najib’s partner-in-crime Jho Low in British Virgin Islands to siphon money raised through 1MDB. IPIC-Aabar insisted that they did not receive the US$3.5 billion and therefore there was no obligation for them to guarantee anything.
Following the standoff with Abu Dhabi sovereign fund IPIC, the troubled 1MDB finally admitted in April 2016 that it was not able to pay US$50.3 million coupon on the $1.75 billion bond. 1MDB said the missed interest payment caused a cross-default on its RM5 billion (US$1.28 billion) “sukuk Islamic bond” due in 2039 and a RM2.4 billion “sukuk” due between 2021 and 2024.
In May 2016, the governments of Abu Dhabi and Malaysia agree to resolve the dispute in private arbitration. The next month (June 2016), 1MDB said it was confident of its legal position in a debt payment dispute with the Abu Dhabi sovereign fund that was seeking arbitration. However, audio recordings, revealed by MACC chief Latheefa Koya in January 2020, raised eyebrows.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Latheefa said the audio clips, which she said were handed to the agency anonymously, were proof of a “high-level criminal conspiracy” to cover up wrongdoing. She also said forensics showed that all the nine recordings were authentic and would be shared with the police and other authorities for further investigation.
The nine sets of audio clips, totalling 45 minutes, contained phone conversations involving seven individuals, including Najib, with a total of 13 names mentioned. In one of the phone conversations recorded on July 22, 2016, Najib Razak sought help from the United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan to fake evidence in an effort to cover up for the 1MDB scandal.
In the recording, Najib had asked the UAE Crown Prince to help fabricate a loan agreement to show that his stepson, Riza Aziz, had received financing from the UAE state-funded International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) and not from money siphoned from 1MDB. Riza Aziz, one of the producers of the hit movie “The Wolf of Wall Street”, had received US$248 million of the stolen money.
There was also a phone conversation dated July 23, 2016 between Mr Najib and Mr Khaldoon, the CEO of Mubadala Development Company, who agreed to “meet alone” with the then-Prime Minister of Malaysia. The phone conversations occurred in the same month the U.S. Department of Justice filed civil cases to seize more than US$1 billion in assets misappropriated from 1MDB.
On April 24, 2017, 1MDB suddenly entered into a settlement with IPIC, agreed to pay back the US$1.2 billion it owed to IPIC. The shocking decision by the Najib administration to free IPIC of its obligations as a guarantor meant the disgraced Malaysian prime minister had indirectly admitted that he knew all along about the US$3.5 billion diverted to the fake Aabar BVI.
However, after the stunning defeat of Najib government in the May 2018 General Election, the Pakatan Harapan government won its 1MDB appeal against IPIC at the Court of Appeal in London in efforts to recover US$3.5 billion misappropriated from 1MDB funds. Unfortunately, the Pakatan government collapsed after 22 months due to betrayals and internal power struggles.
The Mahiaddin government so far has shown zero interest to recover those monies. Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, Prime Minister Mahiaddin and even the Agong (King) had visited Abu Dhabi. But all of them had returned home literally empty-handed – without any new foreign investments, let alone any settlement of the US$3.5 billion dispute with IPIC.
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June 23rd, 2021 by financetwitter
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The fcuking Pharkatan gomen came to power on the claim it was fighting corruption and would pursue the 1MDB matter and recover money. The arseh*les in Pharkatan did fcuk all by way of honest effort, the energy and time the fakes and fraud’s spent was for them to arsefcuk each other and getting themselves arsephcuked by the known treacherous Snake Pharaoh M for Memali Monster.
It was a massive sum claimed lost and a mere pittance recovered. Before the election, the Lim Lynasty Tokong claimed that tax could be lowered by the 1MDB money recovered. Instead, all we got from the fcuking longkang tokong swindlers was a lecture on the the joy of learning jawi, and the beauty of Khat – which was imposed on our kids.
The DAP arseh*les disrupted the funding of the Chinese schools, otherwise spent time prostituting themselves to their deity Memali Mo.
Of course, the tokong couldn’t resist doing their monkey performance for the Malays their elusive other voters who would never vote the DAP into anything – and even with the DAP’s usual suspects with their heads stuck in Memali Mo’s butth*le.
The winner in Pharkatan’s massive effort to fcuk themselves is, of course, Fat Jho. It is no clear there’s never been any intention to grab him. Fat Boy is more intelligent than Pharkatan and UMNO, and the other assorted sh*theads combined. If he is touched even from a distant, you can bet he’s got more in a few years than Anwar has amassed for years on the Snake Pharaoh. And unlike Anwar and his non-existent boxes and boxes of “evidence”, you can bet Fat Boy would arsefcuk and take down a whore bunch of our arseh*le political monkeys with him – Sumo style!
Niamahaidin never as much as bother himself chasing after Fat Boy or 1MDB money or bringing all the criminals – including those in the US DOJ and the FBI. Since so many were being fed by Uncle Fat Boy, Niamahaidin could even be wan of them!
Malaysians can as usual bitch about the Arabs, they are crap business folks – but good enough to arsefcuk our excruciating stupid monkeys. The chip industry is a great one, if not handled by the fcuking Bedouins, would be the industry to be in. Or a great way to milk investors if the business fails. As usual, too, Singapore beat us to it, we can just sit back and bitch about that, and be gleeful if it fails. If it is a scam, Singapore would recover every cent back. Which is another way of saying Malaysia is useless – and deserves to be arse-fcuked by that Arab bunch, camels are more interesting to them than Malaysians.
Meanwhile, there’s nothing stopping Pharkatan and the Snake Pharaoh Dr Monster from pursuing the Arabs and everyone and every outfit else, why just tell Niamahaidin to do that, lost interest or never had the desire after seizing – and pharking losing power, anyway?!
Anyway, keep bitchin’ and keep fcuking yourselves, Fat Boy is laughing his pin head on his whale body off!