New Intel Germany Fab and EU Investment Plans Outlined

Intel today is following the recent Intel Ohio Fab plans with another side, this time in Europe. The company is planning to build a new German fab site, plus is planning to add additional investment sites in countries like France, Spain, and Italy.

New Intel Germany Fab and EU Investment Plans Outlined

Intel has a number of plans for Europe and is spreading around planned investments. Intel has an infographic that shows where 33 billion euros of investment are planned, with up to 80 billion euros of planned investment over the next ten years.

A few examples are that Intel is planning to add a new fab in Magdeburg, Germany. This is a 17 billion euro site that is rendered above. As we saw with recent factories in Germany, such as Tesla’s new plant, a lot hinges on local approvals for that. Both the EU and the German government are providing subsidies for the fab. That is why countries like the UK are not included in the announcement today given Brexit. Likewise, Intel is expanding the Leixlip, Ireland fab that looks noticeably more used than the Magdeburg renderings.

There are also planned investments in Ireland, connected to the Tower Semi acquisition and items like adding additional engineering jobs in France. Intel envisions its new German facility to be “Silicon Junction” bringing together European resources.

Final Words

Let us just help cut through a bit of the language used. Words like “up to” and “planned” were plentiful in the announcement. There are a lot of approvals that need to happen to get all of this done. At the same time, Intel is announcing a huge figure with a lot contingent on these approvals. For example, here is the Italy 4.5 billion euro passage:

In addition, Intel and Italy have entered into negotiations to enable a state-of-the-art back-end manufacturing facility. With a potential investment of up to 4.5 billion euros, this factory would create approximately 1,500 Intel jobs plus an additional 3,500 jobs across suppliers and partners, with operations to start between 2025 and 2027. (Source: Intel with bold emphasis added)

While there is still a lot of work to be done, for Europe, this makes a lot of sense. If Europe wants to have a semiconductor supply chain that is within the EU, then a key aspect is adding fab capacity. Especially with recent geopolitical events, even in Europe, the EU is gearing up for major investments in its future, and that means making chips.