Chipmaker GlobalFoundries acquires chip designer MIPS to expand technology

GlobalFoundries has purchased chip designer MIPS, resulting in a company that designs and manufactures semiconductors.

The two businesses announced the deal on Tuesday. The amount of money involved was not disclosed, but with the caveat that MIPS will “continue to operate as a standalone business within GF and serve its customers across a broad range of technologies.”

This implies that MIPS will most likely be allowed to continue with its company, which has recently focused on producing processor designs based on the permissively licensed RISC-V instruction set architecture.

Companies like MIPS license their designs to companies that need chips designed for specific applications or want to build custom chips.

MIPS recently announced a range of new processor cores called “Atlas” that it designed for real-time processing workloads and for running AI on edge devices.

It looks like GlobalFoundries has decided it wants that IP in its portfolio, making this acquisition a big bet on both RISC-V and AI.

GlobalFoundries uses MIPS to compete with Arm – arguably a direct competitor for MIPS as it offers advanced core and processor designs.