UK is off the table for potential Intel fab after Brexit

As previously reported, the US chipmaker is looking to increase its output in the middle of the current ongoing global shortage. In late September the company broke ground on its USD 20 billion capacity expansion in Arizona, which will result in on two new chip factories. When these plans were first announced back in March, the CEO also stated that Intel was looking to accelerate its investments beyond Arizona, and that the next phase of capacity expansions in the U.S., Europe and other global locations would be announced within the year. This was teased further during a keynote at IAA Mobility in Munich, Germany in September this year when he said that the company is “committed to announce our next major mega fab location in Europe and we hope to have this announced before the end of this year.” He explained further that this location would consist of two fabs, which would start the so called “mega site”, which would grow over time, over the next decade or so, to eight fabs. Each of these fabs would represent an investment of EUR 10 billion, which means that Intel’s capacity expansion in Europe is a EUR 80 billion project over the next decade. Where the site will be located is still not decided, but something that is decided is that the UK is not being considered. Pat Gelsinger told the BBC in and interview that the company “absolutely would have been seeking sites for consideration” in the UK, however Brexit had changed this. Post-Brexit, the company is instead looking at EU countries and getting support from the EU. "I have no idea whether we would have had a superior site from the UK," he told the BBC. "But we now have about 70 proposals for sites across Europe from maybe 10 different countries.”