Earlier this year, when the CEO suit had just debuted, Pat Gelsinger revealed that Intel would invest millions of dollars in Europe to reduce dependence on Asia in the semiconductor industry. The announcement ignited the illusion of a dozen countries, including Spain, which were interested in the idea of being part of the ambitious plans of the American technology giant.
While the company has not provided details on which are the candidate countries to host its new chip factories, it has said there were 70 potential locations on the list. However, according to Bloomberg according to sources close to the negotiations Intel has chosen to stay with Germany, France and Italy, thus leaving Spain out of its expansion plans in the old continent.
A project of 80,000 billion euros
The semiconductor giant will have three new facilities in Europe, for a total of four if the plant located in Ireland since the 1980s is taken into account. Germany will lead the project with a “mega factory” of silicon wafers that will cost “billions of dollars.”
France, for its part, will not have a semiconductor factory, but a research and design center, although the estimated investment amounts for this part of the project are not specified. Reuters points out that Intel will invest 8,000 million euros to build a test and assembly factory in Italy.
Considering that Intel plans to invest more than 80,000 billion euros in Europe over the next decade, Italy would account for around 10% of total investment. Although the company also plans to modernize its facilities in Ireland in the face of the widespread growth of the sackcloth industry with a additional investment of 5.5 billion euros.
Intel does not release a word, although in a statement seen by Reuters it anticipates that we will have news soon: “We are encouraged by the many possibilities to support the EU’s digital agenda and semiconductor ambitions for 2030. While current negotiations are ongoing and confidential, we plan to make an announcement as soon as possible.“.
It should be noted that not only Intel wants to stop depending on Asian regions for the development of its business and compete with Samsung and TSMC in an environment of growing demand. The EU wants to reach 20% of global semiconductor production by 2030 (currently it is 10%). To do this, Ursula Von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, announced the intention to approve a chip law, a measure that could materialize in 2022.
Images | Intel
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