SiliconBeat

Advanced Micro Devices generally left Wall Street displeased when it reported its 11th consecutive quarterly loss earlier this week. But the Sunnyvale chip maker offered one tantalizing tidbit about its recently spun-off manufacturing arm.

GlobalFoundries, the manufacturing unit that AMD and Abu Dhabi investors set up as a separate business in March, is expected to announce in coming weeks that it has its first customer other than AMD.

Since AMD still receives revenue from GlobalFoundries, having more money flowing into the manufacturing operation should help AMD. Moreover, the ability of GlobalFoundries to attract other customers should reduce AMD’s expenses, said company spokesman Drew Prairie.

“Right now, since we are the only customer, we are shouldering the costs of underutilization charges” associated with GlobalFoundries, he said. “As they add more customers, we will move to a traditional founry model,” where AMD only pays for chips it buys from the manufacturing operation.