By Stephen Nellis
(Reuters) -GlobalFoundries, the world’s third-largest contract chipmaker, said on Wednesday it has appointed Tim Breen as its chief executive officer.
Breen, who has been with the company since 2018 and served as its chief operating officer since 2023, will succeed Thomas Caulfield in the top role.
GlobalFoundries shares were largely unchanged on the news.
Prior to joining GlobalFoundries, Breen held a senior executive position at Mubadala Investment Company, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund and GlobalFoundries’ largest stakeholder.
Caulfield, who led GlobalFoundries through its 2021 initial public offering after being appointed CEO in 2018, will transition to executive chairman.
The company also announced that Niels Anderskouv will be appointed as president and will replace Breen as the chief operating officer.
In that role, Anderskouv, a former Texas Instruments executive, will oversee manufacturing and product strategy.
GlobalFoundries in 2018 stepped out of the costly race against Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing to make the most advanced computing chips, but there are many specialty chip markets, such as radio-frequency chips and chips for automobiles, where it is a technology leader.
“Since joining the team in 2023, Niels has set a clear strategy for building differentiated products, value-added services and establishing durable partnerships with our customers. Together, Tim and Niels have the vision and experience to guide the company forward,” Caulfield said in a statement.
GlobalFoundries has been seeing a pickup in demand for its chips owing to a recovery in the smartphone market, although it still faces sluggishness in industrial and automotive end markets.
Last year, the Malta, New York-based company received subsidies worth around $1.5 billion for expanding its chips business as part of the U.S. government’s plans to boost domestic manufacturing.
(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Tasim Zahid, Mrigank Dhaniwala and Nia Williams)
