With an investment of as much as $6 billion from the Abu Dhabi government, the newly formed company will have more negotiating muscle with equipment suppliers, Grose said in an interview. The company has two plants in Germany and is building another factory in Saratoga County, New York.

“This is a good environment to be building out, both here and in Germany,” said Grose, who spent 20 years at International Business Machines Corp. “When customers come back, well be ready.”

Globalfoundries will make processors for AMD and seek orders from other chipmakers and designers. The company will become the third-largest producer of made-to-order chips behind Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and United Microelectronics Corp., Grose said.

The company has about 3,000 employees, mostly based in Dresden, Germany, and plans to add an additional 1,400 when it builds the new plant in New York state.

While the recession may hold down the cost of building new plants, the company will need to hire salespeople to court new clients, Grose said. Abu Dhabi is investing in the semiconductor industry to diversify its economy, rather than make a quick profit, he said.

Stop Worrying

“It allows us to stop worrying about the cash and get focused on the business,” Grose said. “What they are doing has a huge investment horizon on it.”

The global financial crisis will cut worldwide semiconductor revenue by 24 percent in 2009, and the industry wont return to 2008 sales levels until 2013, according to researcher Gartner Inc.

AMD, which competes with Intel Corp. in the market for personal-computer microprocessors, announced the agreement with the Abu Dhabi government last October. Globalfoundries has assumed about $1.2 billion of AMDs debt as part of the transaction. It will be based in Sunnyvale, California, adjacent to AMD.

AMD rose 6 cents to $2.07 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have lost 4.2 percent this year.

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