IBM and GlobalFoundries have settled several lawsuits stemming back to 2021 – saying the all-encompassing agreement “allows the companies to explore new opportunities for collaboration in areas of mutual interest.”
IBM sued GlobalFoundries four years ago over a $1.5 billion deal it inked with the former AMD foundry to make it semiconductors in 2014. GlobalFoundries ultimately failing to deliver on promised technologies it claimed.
GlobalFoundries in its own legal response grumbled that IBM had classified the chip-making business it outsourced to GlobalFoundries as a “non-core franchise” and admitted bluntly that it had ultimately “opted not to place itself in serious financial stress through the continued pursuit of a failing strategy and accordingly ceased developing 7nm technology.”
(IBM pivoted to Samsung as a supplier instead.)
GlobalFoundries had claimed the lawsuit was a “misguided and ill-conceived effort by IBM’s law department to try to extract an outlandish payment from GF that IBM knows it is not entitled to…”
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It counter-sued in 2023, accusing IBM of illegally disclosing trade secrets and IP to Intel and Japan-backed foundry Rapidus. The January 2, 2025 settlement resolves “all litigation matters, inclusive of breach of contract, trade secrets and intellectual property claims between the two companies” the two said, without disclosing any terms of the settlement.
Arguably next up when it comes to IBM-at-Court is a verdict from a British judge, following a legal clash with Switzerland’s LZLabs over the latter’s mainframe refactoring software. IBM alleged that LzLabs illegally reverse-engineered its mainframe software to help develop its Software Defined Mainframe. LzLabs responded that IBM is challenging fair use principles and that it is using "speculative and unparticularized" claims to thwart a competitor. A verdict is expected in the first calendar quarter.
