Glofo has filed suits in the United States and Germany, GlobalFoundries wants unspecified “significant” damages from TSMC based on the Taiwanese firm’s unlawful use of its technology in its “tens of billions of dollars of sales”.

The complaints alleged that chip manufacturing technologies used by TSMC infringed GlobalFoundries’ 16 patents, and sought to prevent imports of products containing chips produced with the infringing technologies, the Santa Clara, California-based firm said in a statement.

It did not elaborate on products affected by the infringement, but listed Apple, Qualcomm, Google, Nvidia, Lenovo and MediaTek among TSMC’s customers affected by the complaints.

In a move to highlight its investment in the United States amid an intensifying US trade war with China over Beijing’s unfair practices involving technology transfers and intellectual property, GlobalFoundries said the lawsuits are aimed at protecting its US investment.

“While semiconductor manufacturing has continued to shift to Asia, GlobalFoundries has bucked the trend by investing heavily in the American and European semiconductor industries.”

GlobalFoundries, which is owned by Abu Dhabi’s state investment vehicle, said: “This action is critical ... to safeguard the American and European manufacturing base.”