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GlobalFoundries announced the completion of its previously announced acquisition of Synopsys’ ARC Processor IP Solutions business. Combined with MIPS, by GF, the acquisition establishes GF as a technology partner offering customers a software-to-silicon capability purpose-built for Physical AI. Synopsys retains and continues to expand its broad portfolio of interface and foundation IP, while GF assumes ownership and stewardship of the ARC processor IP business. MIPS combined with ARC brings together RISC-V processor IP, software tools, custom design and advanced manufacturing into a single offering, while also expanding GF’s engineering depth with world-class processor and AI talent to accelerate innovation.
“Physical AI is driving tighter integration of compute, software and process technology and customers need a partner who can support them across all three together,” said Sameer Wasson, CEO of MIPS, by GF. “With MIPS and ARC united, GF delivers the software, IP and custom silicon capabilities our customers need to build differentiated, application-specific solutions across automotive, industrial robotics and embedded systems, enabling us to operate as a holistic technology partner and engage throughout the design cycle.”
Agentic AI is rapidly extending beyond the data center into the physical world, driving new physical AI and autonomous platforms across automotive radar and advanced driver-assistance systems to industrial robotics, smart factories and the next generation of IoT devices. These systems must now sense, think, act and communicate in real time under tight power and latency constraints, making differentiated silicon spanning compute, AI acceleration, sensing and connectivity, critical to performance and adoption.
“As automotive and industrial systems become increasingly real-time and AI-driven, we need a technology partner that can bring together standards-based IP and optimized silicon design at scale, with the supply resilience our industry now requires,” said Thomas Schneid, VP of Automotive Software and Ecosystem, Infineon. “GlobalFoundries’ combination of MIPS and ARC processor IP with its manufacturing scale provides companies strong end‑to‑end foundation to build differentiated, power-efficient solutions for next-generation intelligent systems.”
With the transaction complete, the ARC processor IP business becomes part of GF’s expanding Physical AI portfolio within MIPS. Together, MIPS and ARC form a world-class RISC-V processor IP suite spanning high-performance, mid-range and ultra-low-power compute and AI cores, backed by more than 150 patents and a global ecosystem of over 300 IP customers. The acquired portfolio also includes the application-specific instruction set (ASIP) processor tools, ASIP Designer and ASIP Programmer, empowering customers to design and program custom processors tailored to their specific workloads. Paired with GF’s design enablement, custom silicon capabilities, advanced software tools and global manufacturing footprint, customers gain a single partner from architecture to silicon, enabling early engagement, differentiated product development and faster time-to-market.
