January 08, 2009 Foundry Company gets the go-ahead
By ANN MARIE FRENCH, The Saratogian
MALTA — Construction of the much-anticipated cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing company in the Luther Forest Technology Campus is one step closer to reality.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has provided the clearance required for Advanced Micro Devices and the Advanced Technology Investment Company to create a joint venture to be known as The Foundry Company. In addition, CFIUS also made the determination that the proposed additional investment in AMD by Mubadala is not a covered transaction subject to its review.
The purpose of CFIUS is to ensure national security while promoting foreign investment and the creation of maintenance jobs. The Advanced Technology Investment Company is a company created in 2008 and owned wholly by the government of Abu Dhabi.
When the joint venture was announced in October, AMD said it would own about 44 percent of the new company with ATIC owning the remaining 56 percent. More recent negotiations, completed in early December, resulted in ownership by AMD decreasing to 34 percent while ATIC’s ownership increased to 66 percent.
Mubadala Development Company is a public joint stock company also based in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, with its sole shareholder being the government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. Mubadala, which already invests in AMD, is set to increase its investment to 19.3 percent at the close of the deal.
CFIUS is also responsible for reforming the process through which those investments are examined for any affect on national security. The committee was created by President Gerald Ford in 1975 and delegated to presidential oversight by President Ronald Reagan in 1988. The committee is chaired by the Secretary of Treasury and includes representatives from nine other federal agencies.
The clearance by CFIUS follows approvals by the Empire State Development Corporation and the state Public Authorities Control Board to transfer $650,000 in grant monies from AMD to Advanced Technology Investment Company.
Still to be completed is the transfer of several financial agreements between government entities in Germany and the Foundry Company, as well as a vote of approval from AMD shareholders.
In order to receive the $1.2 million in incentives being offered by New York state, the entities have until July 2009 to sign documents committing them to the Malta site
AMD officials have said they expect construction of the 1.2-million-square-foot facility to begin this year with production of the chips beginning in 2012. The project is expected to bring in 1,465 new jobs to the area and encourage other high-tech businesses to relocate into the region.
