Tech Talk with GlobalFoundries CEO
As our Tech CEO guest speaker, GlobalFoundries’ Thomas Caulfield discusses the lucrative world of semiconductor manufacturing, and its significance in tech innovation.
How is the semiconductor industry an influential part of advancing technology?
This topic was the center of the Oct. 22 lecture at Columbia Engineering's latest installment of the Tech CEO Lecture series with Thomas Caulfield BS’82, MS’84, EngScD’86. Held in Davis Auditorium, Caulfield shared his insights to 130 guests on the semiconductor industry and the significance it has in pushing technology into a new age of computing.
Caulfield is president and CEO of Global Foundries (GF), one of five semiconductor manufacturing companies in the world. He has held several senior level roles, including president and COO at Soraa and Ausra, and has also held executive roles at Novellus Systems and IBM. A proud Columbia alumnus, Caulfield holds a bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate in materials science and engineering from Columbia Engineering.
“Semiconductors are the driving force in the past few decades that is really transforming society and industry going forward, and is also playing a key role in transforming many different fields,” said Columbia Engineering Dean Shih-Fu Chang in his opening remarks. “Caulfield will give us a picture of the global semiconductor landscape, and share the challenges and opportunities ahead of us.”
Moore’s law and economics
The hallmark attribute of the semiconductor industry is Moore’s Law, an observation that the number of transistors on a circuit doubles about every two years. This doubles the capacity of technology each year at half the cost of production, driving innovation forward exponentially.
“If the auto industry innovated at the same pace the semiconductor industry has over the last 50 years, a Rolls Royce would cost 40 bucks and you could circle the globe eight times on a gallon of gas,” explained Caulfield. “This is just perspective on how much innovation has been in our industry.”
As technology enters into a new age of AI, however, the complexity of building semiconductors has increased, leading to increased costs. There is a large need for low powered transistors that would be efficient enough for this new age.
Achieving a resilient global manufacturing footprint
75% of semiconductor companies are based in or around Taiwan, with a large concentration of the manufacturing power originating from the biggest semiconductor company in the world, TSMC. “These companies can be destroyed overnight with any issues that create supply chain disruption,” said Caulfield. “That's why supply chains are really important. It's about resiliency as much as access and low cost.” GlobalFoundries’ strategy is to develop a globally diverse footprint, establishing four manufacturing plants in three countries–the United States, Singapore, and Germany. This diversifies the market and allows for GF to be resilient against many issues that can occur from being in only one location.
GlobalFoundries is also taking advantage of government incentives that aim to boost semiconductor manufacturing. “The U.S. has an investment tax credit for 25%, so for every dollar you spend to create capacity in the U.S., 40 cents of that the government will co-invest with you,” said Caulfield. “The world is trying to respond by creating incentives that level the playing field and the competitiveness to create capacity in different regions of the world.”
A new era of technology
Caulfield went on to explain how GlobalFoundries is prepping for this new era of AI, and how power-efficient devices will drive a new economic model in the semiconductor industry. As data centers start to accommodate generative AI, it is imperative that these centers are energy efficient to mitigate this novel technology. “Power is everything in the data center. In fact, what's going to limit data center build-out is access to power,” he said. “Who's going to allow you to build a data center in a town where the grid can't support that level of power usage? For GF, that means integrated voltage regulators and technologies that allow better power efficiency in data centers.”
Caulfield discussed the gradual elimination of analog technology in favor of a digital, cloud-based system that will allow AI to thrive. “We live in an analog world. Everything we're doing, what I'm doing right now is analog, and everything needs to be digital,” Caulfield said. “Every device we have today, over the course of the next five years, will be obsolete because it won't be AI enabled. You will need a refresh cycle, which will drive our industry to growth again.”
About the Tech CEO Lecture series
Columbia Engineering’s Tech CEO Lecture Series offers students insights into the latest trends and developments in a respective industry. The series started in September 2023 with a lecture by Benoit Bazin, CEO of Saint-Gobain on Sustainable Construction. This past March, president and CEO of Exponent, Catherine Corrigan, shared her expertise on biomechanics in a special Richard Skalak Distinguished Lecture in Bioengineering.
Join us for our next Tech CEO lecture on Dec. 2, where Dean Kamen, founder and president of DEKA R&D and founder of FIRST®, will give a talk on DEKA’s research of innovative mechanical and robotic systems.
Tech CEO: Thomas Caulfield, GlobalFoundries
Photo Credit: Brandon Vallejo/Columbia Engineering