Samsung denies buying GlobalFoundries… then gives Crown Prince of UAE a tour

In completely unrelated fashion, Samsung officials have attempted to shut down speculation that the Korean tech giant is looking to buy AMD’s one-time manufacturing arm, GlobalFoundries, while its heir apparent hosts the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates. Of course it’s unrelated, GlobalFoundries is an American semiconductor manufacturer, headquartered in Santa Clara, after all. Except that 90% of the company is actually owned by the UAE state-run Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) and really it’s not a US outfit at all. This is apparently the second time in two weeks that the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan and Samsung heir, Lee Jae-yong, have met after the latter's visit to Abu Dhabi earlier this month. That’s a little before Korean media started speculating that Samsung and SK Hynix were the most likely candidates to purchase GloFo as a sale to Chinese concerns has been effectively ruled out. Despite being owned by the UAE, the US government would still likely have something to say about a Chinese company owning the third largest manufacturer of semiconductors, and one with a HQ on American soil.