Intel announced on March 15 that Germany will be the site of a massive chipmaking facility. It is one of the first concrete initiatives to emerge from a $88 billion European investment.
This news comes at a time when there have been assumptions regarding the chip-making giant’s interest in setting up a plant in India.
However, the American chipmaker this week announced plans to expand its existing production in Ireland, as well as open a design and research centre in France and a packaging and assembly facility in Italy.
The funding will help meet the rising demand for chips used in computers, vehicles, smartphones and other electronics, as well as reduce Europe’s reliance on Asian suppliers in the long run, with an initial investment of $36 billion, including more than $18 billion for German plans.
In September last year, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger revealed intentions to invest $88 billion in Europe over the next decade in order to enhance chip manufacturing capacity in the region.
Intel plans to develop two facilities in Magdeburg, Germany, with 7,000 construction employees, 3,000 permanent positions within the corporation and tens of thousands more jobs at suppliers and partners.
The company will invest another $13 billion (approximately) in an Irish facility, bringing its total investment in the country to above $30 billion.
Separately, Intel is also in negotiations with Italy about establishing a back-end manufacturing facility, which may cost up to $4.9 billion and open between 2025 and 2027.
The American chip giant also intends to create a new European research centre in France, which will result in the creation of 1,000 new high-tech jobs.
Spreading its factories over multiple countries may enable the corporation to receive more subsidies from other countries. But European Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton stated that Intel will have to negotiate state help with each European country where it locates factories.
As reported, he also stated that the Commission was in talks with additional chipmakers and that similar announcements would be made in the coming months, although he did not elaborate.
Intel’s Plans For India
According to reports from last year, Intel expressed interest in establishing a new plant in India and was expected to apply for incentives under a new scheme to promote manufacturing for the development of a sustainable semiconductor and display ecosystem.
However, assumptions regarding Intel’s alleged interest began to spread like wildfire following a tweet by Minister for Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Ashwini Vaishnaw.
The union minister tweeted “Intel- welcome to India”, in response to a tweet by Randhir Thakur, a senior vice president and president of Intel Foundry Services.
Thakur thanked MeitY, Vaishnaw and Minister of State for MeitY Rajeev Chandrasekhar on the new scheme, which envisions the establishment of new units for the local manufacturing of high-end semiconductor fab and fabless chips, among other modern hardware, in a tweet.
But as of now, neither the government nor the company has made any clarification or official statement.
In February, though, another report claimed that Tower Semiconductor, a chipmaker based in Israel that was recently acquired by Intel for $5.4 billion, is in talks with the Centre about establishing a manufacturing plant.
However, in regards to chip manufacturing in India, Vaishnaw said earlier that the government anticipates roughly Rs 1.7 trillion in investments and 135,000 employment to be created in the next four years under the PLI scheme for semiconductors.
It is worth noting that the initiative intends to give companies/consortia involved in Silicon Semiconductor Fabs, Display Fabs, Compound Semiconductors / Silicon Photonics / Sensors (including MEMS) Fabs, Semiconductor Packaging (ATMP / OSAT) and Semiconductor Design with attractive incentive support.
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