STOCK MUBADALA
At $47 a share, GlobalFoundries has a market value of more than $25 billion. Image Credit: Supplied

Dubai: Chipmaker GlobalFoundries and major shareholder Mubadala Investment raised almost $2.6 billion in an initial public offering, pricing its shares at the top of a marketed range.

The company and Mubadala sold 55 million shares Wednesday for $47 each after marketing them for $42 to $47, the company said. At $47 a share, GlobalFoundries has a market value of more than $25 billion based on the outstanding shares listed in its filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The listing is the third biggest on a US exchange this year, topped only by South Korean ecommerce firm Coupang’s $4.55 billion IPO and Chinese ride-hailing company DiDi Global’s $4.44 billion raise, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

GlobalFoundries planned to sell 33 million shares while Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala was to sell 22 million shares, according to its filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Mubadala will control more than 89 per cent of the company’s shares after the IPO.

The chipmaker was created by purchasing the manufacturing operations of Advanced Micro Devices in 2009 and later combining it with Singapore’s Chartered Semiconductor. Mubadala was planning for the business to be valued in a listing at around $30 billion, Bloomberg News reported in July.

Chip Shortage

GlobalFoundries is appealing to public-market investors as interest in the semiconductor industry hits an all-time high. Shortages caused by a surge in demand for electronics during coronavirus pandemic lockdowns and insufficient supply have made chip factories more valuable to the economy.