Under the guidance of Intel’s new CEO, Pat Gelsinger, silicon is looking to establish back its dominance in the chip market. The company recently reported that it would be building a new facility in Europe, most likely in Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, or the Netherlands.
However, the CEO of the company has stated that it would require a subsidy of €8 billion (~US$9.7 billion) in total before building a new foundry in Europe. It may ask the US government for a public incentive of a similar magnitude to help the envisioned Arizona plant a reality.
It’s certainly not the first time that Intel has extracted public subsidies in exchange for siting its corporate buildings in certain locations. However, this is the first report of the OEM assigning a specific dollar (or euro, as in this case) value to such a measure.
But, other sources indicate that Intel denies the fact that Gelsinger meant to put that precise a figure out there. However, the company may still be looking to make a similarly closed-figure demand from the EU and the US.
It just shows the need for the establishment of a large-scale chip foundry in Europe to decrease their reliance on semiconductor imports from predominantly Southeast Asia-based companies.
