Germany refuses to provide additional subsidies to Intel for its €17 billion chip plant in Magdeburg, Eastern Germany, as reported by the Financial Times.
Intel's Eastern Germany Facility Faces Delays Due to Lack of Economic Support From the Government
Germany's finance minister Christian Lindner said his government needs more resources to meet Intel's demands. Intel's fabrication units are eligible for €6.8 billion in government subsidies, but the corporation is asking for €10 billion due to increased energy and construction costs. In an interview with Financial Times, here is what Lindner has to say about Intel's demand:
There is no more money available in the budget. We are trying to consolidate the budget right now, not expand it.
Intel's plans for rapid expansion in Europe come after a chip shortage in the region where car manufacturers suffered the most. In response, Chipzilla announced three European facilities, two of which would be built in Germany.
However, these extended plans were hit by the sudden layer of inflation, mainly due to the Russian-Ukraine conflict, which brought problems for the blue team through soaring manufacturing costs and a labor shortage. Intel also requested additional subsidies in March due to the drastic increase in manufacturing costs.
The German plant is expected to be one of the most sophisticated facilities in the world. It is expected to be capable of producing Intel's cutting-edge 18A process. According to the company, the plant will be up and running by 2025. It will utilize next-generation extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment with specialized lenses that allow wider light beams to reach the surface of a wafer on which the circuits are printed.
The EU Chips Act was presented by the European Commission last year to invest €43 billion into Europe's semiconductor industry. This lured corporations like Intel, but the latter now seems bound by escalating prices and regional unpredictability.
News Source: The Financial Times
About the author: Muhammad Zuhair is a hardware and technology reporter for Wccftech, specializing in the semiconductor industry and the complex interplay between technology, manufacturing, and geopolitics. His coverage focuses on the corporate strategies and technological roadmaps of industry giants like TSMC, NVIDIA, Samsung, and Intel. Zuhair's expertise lies in deconstructing complex topics such as fabrication nodes (e.g., 2nm process), the economic impact of policies like the CHIPS Act, and the strategic development of AI infrastructure from NVIDIA, AMD and Intel.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
