The Commerce Department is taking a 1% stake in GlobalFoundries and plans to grant the company money to develop silicon photonics for data centers.

The semiconductor company signed a letter of intent with the government to speed up research and development on silicon photonics for data centers.

GlobalFoundries expects to get $300 million from the Commerce Department under the letter of intent, it said Wednesday.

In a separate agreement, the Commerce Department will receive equity from GlobalFoundries, representing about 1% ownership.

Shares of the company gained 3.9% to $50.93 in premarket trading.

Silicon photonics can move data at the speed of light and are an important product for high-performance-computing data centers driving the artificial-intelligence boom.

The work under the letter of intent will leverage GlobalFoundries' existing sites in Malta, N.Y., and Burlington, Vt.