Intel Announces €33 Billion Investment In The EU

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Intel Announces €33 Billion Investment In The EU

Intel announced today their initial investment of over €33 billion into the EU as part of their IDM 2.0 strategy...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Intel-IDM-EU-Investment

[schmidtbag]

I'm actually kinda surprised 33 billion is enough to build all of that, by European standards anyway.

[cl333r]

And why is Intel not building them in the US? I think this wouldn't happen under Trump. Didn't China teach the US a lesson that you shouldn't invest giant sums of money into hi-tech into foreign countries? Because today's relations are one thing and 15 years from now they might be totally different.

[prazola]

And why is Intel not building them in the US? I think this wouldn't happen under Trump. Didn't China teach the US a lesson that you shouldn't invest giant sums of money into hi-tech into foreign countries? Because today's relations are one thing and 15 years from now they might be totally different.

Probably because EU is investing in homemade chips and technology. This investment could slow the transition to the future EU tech.

[Volker Schmidt]

There are some practical reasons too. We can assume that some national money is added to there investment. Saxony has a good pool of qualified personal for chip production. The new photolithography machines manufactured by ASML is rather close by, and the lot of the know how for this machines in located in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. Bringing the latest technology into production will clearly profit from proximity.

[LubosD]

Didn't China teach the US a lesson that you shouldn't invest giant sums of money into hi-tech into foreign countries?

I don't understand how you can compare EU to China. EU countries and USA are long-standing allies.

Because today's relations are one thing and 15 years from now they might be totally different.

Not happening unless there a new totalitarian warlord on one of the sides of the Atlantic. In which case I hope the other side would come and help make things better.

[ms178]

Volker Schmidt To be exact, it's Saxony-Anhalt, but "silicon Saxony" is not far away geographically. I am happy for that state, as there is not much industry there any longer and a much needed booster in its economic development.

cl333r Europe is not China, last time I checked, we were allies. Intel already builds lots of capacity in the US, but a) there is a finite amount of subsidies the US government is willing to spend and probably not trickle solely to them and b) Intel needs to think globally if it wants to compete with TSMC and Samsung for their foundry business, Intel wants to get closer where the business is and the European market is huge. Hence fabs within the EU make perfect sense. Also due to the EU CHIPS act there are financial incentives to invest in EU, Intel taps into that pie now, too.

[cl333r]

I don't understand how you can compare EU to China. EU countries and USA are long-standing allies.


Not happening unless there a new totalitarian warlord on one of the sides of the Atlantic. In which case I hope the other side would come and help make things better.

There's no such thing as allies, everybody is a temporary ally or a temporary enemy. And if you think the tensions between China and the US are bad because China is "totalitarian" then you don't know anything about geopolitics, history, China or the US.

[Vistaus]

And why is Intel not building them in the US? I think this wouldn't happen under Trump. Didn't China teach the US a lesson that you shouldn't invest giant sums of money into hi-tech into foreign countries? Because today's relations are one thing and 15 years from now they might be totally different.

What do you mean they're not building them in the US?

https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2022/jan/22/intel-plans-20b-chip-complex/?latest

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/23/intel-is-spending-20-billion-to-build-two-new-chip-plants-in-arizona.html

[dlq84]

Intel is building new fabs in the US too. Both EU and US is worried that most chip fabrication is in or close to China. That's why both US and EU gets new fabs now.