Chip Maker GlobalFoundries Revamps Brand Amid Global Chip Shortage

GlobalFoundries, one of the largest specialist chip-production companies, started thinking about a makeover before the pandemic after talking to customers and realizing it wasn’t clearly or consistently communicating its intended emphasis on innovation, said Michelle Leyden Li, the company’s head of brand and global marketing, in an interview.

Its new marketing efforts are designed to position the company as a leader in producing technology for growth markets such as 5G-enabled smartphones, conveying its role in products that improve people’s lives, and describing innovation that makes chips smarter, not just smaller, she said.

The so-called feature-rich chips that GlobalFoundries makes enable specific features, from touch screens to secure payments.

The company will highlight these messages on social-media platforms and at events. It will also showcase innovation from its customers in areas such as automobiles and data centers.

And the company’s all-uppercase, 1990s-esque logo will give way to one including lower-case letters and a more modern-looking font, said Ms. Leyden Li.

GlobalFoundries more than doubled its marketing budget this year to be more in line with other business-to-business companies’ allocation, which is typically up to 1% of revenue, she said.

The new positioning comes as the company, used to working behind the curtain, finds its industry in the spotlight over the continuing chip shortage affecting businesses and consumers alike. It also comes nearly two years after the company’s chief executive, Tom Caulfield, said the chip maker is aiming for a public offering in 2022.  

GlobalFoundries is owned by Mubadala Investment Co., an investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government. The company, which is based in the U.S., has manufacturing plants around the world. It generated approximately $6 billion in revenue last year, it said.

While Covid-19 wasn’t a factor in GlobalFoundries’ decision to rearticulate its brand, the pandemic affected its approach by making it more important to educate customers and lawmakers, according to Laurie Kelly, vice president of global communications at GlobalFoundries.

As such, the company has increased its focus on public affairs and work in Washington to argue that funding chip manufacturers is important in the effort to avoid shortages in the future, she said.

The U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, which was passed by the Senate and endorsed by the White House in June, could allocate funding for domestic chip production to alleviate supply-chain risks and ensure dependable semiconductor sourcing if passed by the House, the company said. The investment could also help GlobalFoundries accelerate plans to expand in the U.S., it said.

Write to Alexandra Bruell at [email protected]