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The US Department of Commerce is moving to offload nearly 10 million shares of GlobalFoundries, the specialty semiconductor manufacturer that has become a linchpin of America’s push to reshore chip production. The stake, roughly 1% of the company, was acquired not through a market purchase but as part of a CHIPS and Science Act funding arrangement.
The 9,907,399 ordinary shares were issued to the Commerce Department through a Securities Issuance Agreement dated September 3, 2026, at a price of $37.85 per share. That values the government’s position at approximately $375 million on paper.
How Washington ended up holding chipmaker equity
The shares are the equity component of a broader CHIPS Act R&D award worth up to $375 million, announced on September 8, 2026. The funding is earmarked for establishing a secure domestic quantum foundry and bolstering capabilities in cryogenic CMOS, advanced packaging, and heterogeneous integration.
The deal was publicly disclosed through a Form 6-K filing by GlobalFoundries on September 8, 2026. It builds on an earlier $300 million letter of intent from July 2026 that targeted silicon photonics development at the company’s facilities.
GlobalFoundries, which trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker GFS, is one of the world’s largest contract chipmakers. Unlike TSMC or Samsung, it doesn’t chase the bleeding edge of chip miniaturization. Instead, it focuses on mature and specialty process nodes that power everything from automotive sensors to defense electronics.
The fine print on government shareholding
The Commerce Department’s stake comes with guardrails designed to prevent the awkwardness of a federal agency wielding influence inside a publicly traded company.
Transfer restrictions prohibit the government from selling shares through privately negotiated deals to GlobalFoundries’ competitors.
Voting restrictions are even more limiting. The government can only vote its shares on narrow matters like changes to share classes or significant corporate actions. Day-to-day governance decisions, board elections, executive compensation: all off-limits.
On the exit side, the agreement grants the Commerce Department customary resale shelf and piggyback registration rights. GlobalFoundries is required to file a shelf registration statement on Form F-3 within six months of the agreement.
The plan to sell the shares without the Commerce Department receiving proceeds, as noted in the original announcement, suggests the structure may involve the shares being distributed or retired in a way that fulfills the terms of the funding agreement rather than generating cash for the government’s coffers.
CHIPS Act equity stakes: a new model for industrial policy
The quantum foundry initiative is particularly notable. Quantum computing hardware requires specialized chip fabrication that doesn’t exist at commercial scale in the US. Cryogenic CMOS, which operates at temperatures near absolute zero, is essential for controlling quantum processors.
For GlobalFoundries shareholders, the government’s roughly 1% stake is modest enough to avoid significant dilution concerns. The $37.85 per share issuance price establishes a benchmark for how the market should think about the government’s cost basis, and eventually, its exit.
The registration rights timeline means the earliest the Commerce Department could begin selling through a shelf offering would be roughly early 2027, assuming GlobalFoundries files the required F-3 within the six-month window.
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