IBM and GlobalFoundries amicably settle their lawsuits. The two parties accused each other of, among other things, breach of contract and theft of intellectual property, but those grievances are now off the table.
IBM and GlobalFoundries have settled all their pending lawsuits. The parties let the parties themselves know that. The parties do not share the details of the settlement. They do let it be known that the way is now open again to explore new collaborations, which may be of interest to both. Both parties are satisfied with the outcome of the case.
Double trial
The legal disputes concerned two issues. Along the one hand, IBM found that GlobalFoundries had breached its contractual obligations. That claim related to an order to manufacture 14 nm Power and Z processors at GlobalFoundries. That was allegedly delayed, after which GlobalFoundries experienced problems rolling out 10 nm and 7 nm. As a result, IBM said it ran out of roadmap. In practice, the company switched to Samsung for manufacturing. This case dates back to 2021, and IBM claimed $2.5 billion in damages.
In 2023, GlobalFoundries itself went to court. The chip maker saw IBM partnered with Japan’s Rapidus, and claimed that IBM had passed intellectual property from GlobalFoundries to Rapidus (and Intel). In addition, GlobalFoundries found that IBM was actively taking engineers away from the company, again in an attempt to share IP with third parties.
For both claims, the argument is now over. Whether and how much, if any, was paid, and what other modalities were involved, we do not know.