(Yicai) May 21 -- GlobalFoundries, one of the world's leading chip foundries, has appointed Kay Chai Ang as its president of Asia and chairman of China to lead and boost the firm's business development on the continent while focusing on the country.  

Ang will lead new business development and strategic partnerships within Asia and China, the New York-based firm announced yesterday.

Ang joined GF in 2010 and has served in several senior roles, including most recently as chief manufacturing officer responsible for global sites and previously as head of all Singapore operations, according to the company.

Many multinational partners seek cooperation with GF to provide high-quality chipmaking technologies to better satisfy Chinese customers' constantly growing demand, Ang said.

Ang will be the ideal leader to facilitate ties between Asian clients and GF's partners, and his appointment will speed up the company's business growth in the Chinese market, Chief Business Officer Niels Anderskouv noted.

"GF's business in China has greatly shrunk due to its loss-making performance and external political pressure," an industry insider told Yicai. "Its projects with advanced processes can't achieve further progress, while those with matured processes have many rivals," another industry insider added.

Since its indefinite halt of research and development of seven-nanometer and more advanced processes and shift to matured processes in 2018, GF lost some well-known foundry partners, including Supermicro and IBM, and has faced challenges from its Chinese peers such as Huahong Group and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation in matured processes.  

SMIC's revenue rose 19.7 percent to USD1.8 billion in the three months ended March 31 from a year earlier, exceeding that of Hsinchu-based United Microelectronics and GF and making it one of the world's top-three wafer foundries. GF's first-quarter revenue fell 16 percent to around USD1.6 billion.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev