U.S. Chipmaker GlobalFoundries (GF), in a recent press release, revealed that it plans to acquire MIPS, a leading supplier of compute subsystems for autonomous platforms. The exact purchase amount is not disclosed.
MIPS, which recently expanded its business by offering processors based on the open RISC-V specification, can accelerate artificial intelligence and real-time compute capabilities, benefiting GlobalFoundries in the long term.
Following the acquisition reveal, the stocks of GlobalFoundries witnessed a 6.5% jump on Tuesday, becoming one of the biggest gainers on the Nasdaq.
GlobalFoundries Plans to Expand Semiconductor Solutions
This purchase hints that GlobalFoundries plans to transform from a mere chip manufacturer into a company that offers expanded semiconductor solutions. Niels Anderskouv, president and chief operating officer at the company, stated that they will expand their capabilities to offer more flexible solutions through this acquisition.
According to Niels, this acquisition is a powerful step forward to push the boundaries of efficiency and performance across a broad range of applications in automotive, industrial, and datacenter infrastructure. MIPS will also benefit from the deal due to the exposure to differentiated process nodes and a global network of semiconductor fabrication plants.
MIPS Continues Existing Relationships with Customers
Sameer Wasson, the Chief Executive at MIPS, said that it will continue to maintain its existing relationships with other customers and foundries by continuing as a standalone business inside GlobalFoundries Inc.
MIPS, one of the oldest tech companies, has undergone significant changes over the years. One of the biggest transitions was witnessed in 2021, 36 years after the launch, when the company adopted RISC-V, the new open-source architecture, and announced its RISC-V CPU IP cores. The next radical shift is now, with the arrival of GlobalFoundries.
Acquisition Amount Not Disclosed Yet
The acquisition amount for MIPS is not yet disclosed officially, leading to discussions about how much a venture with a 40-year heritage could cost. The first acquisition by Imagination Technologies was for $100 million in 2013. Market observers believe an amount equals ten times that.
Critics Point Out the RISC-V Uncertainty
While this collaboration is considered an achievement by the mainstream tech communities, various others criticised the deal by pointing out the risky and uncertain nature of the RISC-V ecosystem. Critics argue mainly over the potential fragmentation issues of it.
While MIPS has already witnessed fragmentation, the RISC-V CPU designers and programmers should consider it a challenge to stay aligned. Additionally, the open-source nature of RISC-V has also met with various criticisms in the past.
About GlobalFoundries
Founded in 2009, GlobalFoundries is a multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company headquartered in Malta, New York. Until a 2021 IPO, the company was privately owned by a sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates, Mubadala Investment Company. Following the IPO, Mubadala still owns an 82% stake.
In 2023, GlobalFoundries became the third-largest semiconductor company by revenue. Its rival, TSMC, is the topmost semiconductor company, providing services to a host of clients including Apple, NVIDIA, and AMD.
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About MIPS
MIPS is an American fabless semiconductor design company that is well-known for its RISC CPU chips. It was founded in 1984 as a part of a Stanford University project, and grew us a profitable company in the 90s. It was first purchased by Imagination Technologies in 2013. Later, it was sold to Tallwood Venture Capital in 2017.
In 2018, it was purchased by Wave Computing. When Wave declared bankruptcy, MIPS was abandoned for RISC-V. To survive, MIPS announced its first RISC-V CPU IP cores in 2022, leading to an upward momentum. In July 2025, GlobalFoundries acquired MIPS.
