Intel on the verge of concluding with Germany for a “mega-fab”

Intel investments are raining down on the Old Continent and its surroundings. After Friday’s announcement of a plant embly of semiconductors in Poland for 4.2 billion euros that this morning of a factory of $25 billion chip manufacturing in Israel , the American chip giant is on the verge of announcing on Monday a nearly $30 billion factory in Magdeburg, Germany. For this, he would have finally obtained 10 billion euros in subsidies from Berlin, according to Bloomberg, despite the disagreements within the executive .

Intel boss Pat Gelsinger and Chancellor Olaf Scholz are meeting today in Berlin. A signing is scheduled for 2:45 p.m. this afternoon. The German daily “Handelsblatt” had revealed at the end of the week a deal for a grant of 9.9 billion euros. To secure the upcoming installation of a semiconductor factory, German taxpayers would therefore put 3 billion more on the table than the 6.8 billion in aid initially planned.

3 billion more

At the beginning of the week, the Minister of the Economy, the Green Robert Habeck, ured that “yes, we want this installation to take place”. “If we say no, we will have to bear the consequences” in terms of sovereignty, he explained during a forum on investment in East Germany.

A long standoff opposed him to the Minister of Finance, Christian Lindner, who still affirmed a week ago in the “Financial Times” that there was “no more money” in the federal budget for Intel . The services of Robert Habeck would however have found resources in the special funds of the ministry and would propose to Intel reductions on the costs of energy and water.

Intel had argued rising energy costs and inflation to up the ante. Since the announcement of its installation in Magdeburg, in East Germany, in March 2021, the amount of investment required would have increased from 17 to around 30 billion.

Intel should eventually employ 10,000 people in Magdeburg to produce new generation chips with a structure of less than 5 nanometers.

Using the latest generation machines from Dutch ASML that allow precision etchings on silicon, production could start in 2027 or 2028, instead of 2024 as originally announced.