Blueprint for the Intel chip factory in Magdeburg

Glarge issues typically announce themselves in small issues. When Ann-Marie Holmes throws the fourth image of her PowerPoint presentation on the wall, the German delegation is uneasy. The vice chairman of chip producer Intel first launched the firm after which the factory in Leixlip close to Dublin, Eire, to state politicians from Saxony-Anhalt headed by Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff. A posh of three factories. They’ve been constructed over the previous 30 years. A fourth is now below development. The Individuals’ solely plant in Europe to date is at the moment being expanded for 12 billion euros – and won’t stay alone for lengthy.

At the starting of 2023, the first excavators and cranes roll on a subject close to Magdeburg. Canals should be dug, roads laid, foundations poured, large halls constructed. Intel needs to construct a second European factory advanced on an space the measurement of a village simply outdoors the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt. An enormous factory for the manufacturing of the smallest laptop chips. Preliminary funding 17 billion, enlargement plans of 20 billion. Dublin is type of a task mannequin.

Previously chemical and heavy engineering

Prime Minister Haseloff has seen what’s in retailer for him in Eire as of late. “Quite a lot of work,” he’ll say later. Work that he and his workforce landed in a Europe-wide tender. He calls it a beginning shot. After reunification, the East was de facto de-industrialized on account of its ailing financial system. “Now we’re speaking about reindustrialization,” he says in an interview. Analysis associations and a contemporary financial system, good jobs and the finest prospects. “That is vital – not simply for Germany,” he says.

Saxony-Anhalt was once a chemical location and Magdeburg a middle for heavy engineering. Now the metropolis and the state are betting on tiny chips. The area needs to grow to be a stronghold for semiconductors, the northern tip in the central German chip triangle with Erfurt, Dresden – with assist from Brussels and Berlin. As a result of semiconductors are vital. With out them, no wheel turns right now.

As soon as upon a time, Europe was at the high when it got here to semiconductors. At present it is solely second fee. The EU Fee has simply introduced its Chips Act, a set of commercial coverage objectives and particular administrative guidelines. Berlin allocates billions to the federal price range in order to draw buyers and are available as much as par with the extremely sponsored areas in Asia. Intel is the first to utilize this, as the group sees itself in powerful competitors. He has simply been dethroned as a long-standing trade chief by Korea’s Samsung Group and ousted as expertise chief by Taiwan’s TSMC.

$200 billion to catch up

Now Intel needs to maneuver ahead once more with an funding offensive. To this finish, it should make investments 200 billion {dollars} in the coming decade – in the USA, in Israel and in Europe. Right here, the Individuals wish to arrange a check and packaging web site in Italy for as much as 80 billion euros, stretch a analysis community between Danzig and Paris, modernize the Dublin plant and construct as much as eight new factories in Magdeburg. The primary two are proper on schedule.