Intel abandons French and Italian chip projects
Intel has "paused" its investment in major European projects after accumulating huge manufacturing losses in the last financial year.
According to a report by POLITICO, the US semiconductor giant has shelved some of its key European projects in a bid to reduce its outgoings. In 2022 plan it announced a plant to invest tens of billions of euros in new microchip plants and R&D facilities across Germany, Poland, Ireland, Spain, France and Italy.
The plan had the enthusiastic support of the EU, which like other geopolitical blocs has been working hard to on-shore chip manufacturing and boost its own supply chain.
The French project was an R&D hub for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing located in Paris. But now Intel "has paused its investment in France," the chipmaker said in a statement shared with POLITICO, citing economic and market conditions that are very different now from 2022.
The report also says the plan to build a EUR 4.5 billion plant in Italy is likely to be suspended or shelved. However, Intel's Ireland, Germany and Poland projects remain on track.
Golablly, Intel is currently working on four expansion projects and three greenfield investments, covering everything from R&D to wafer production to advanced packaging operations. It is investing USD 20 billion to expand its Ocotillo campus in Arizona, USD 3.5 billion in its New Mexico operations and EUR 17 billion to build a leading-edge semiconductor fab mega-site in Magdeburg, Germany.
