In an effort to lure Intel (opens in new tab) to its country, Italy has reportedly established a new $4.6bn fund to do so as the chipmaker is preparing to expand its European operations.
Just like Amazon did with its second headquarters which almost ended up in New York City (opens in new tab), Intel has been shopping around in Europe in order to get countries to pledge more funds to help subsidize the construction of its new chip factories in the region.
So far, Germany, Italy and France have been named as potential locations for the company's new super-fabs, factories and offices according to The Register (opens in new tab).
While the EU wants to have its own advanced chip manufacturing industry, Intel wants to establish at least two new leading-edge semiconductor factories in Europe and the company said in a blog post (opens in new tab) that its plans for future investments could reach €80bn ($88bn) over the next decade.
Expanding chip production beyond Asia
One of the reasons that Italy could be home to Intel's new European chip factories is due to the fact that the company is in the process of acquiring Tower Semiconductor (opens in new tab) which currently has factories in Italy as well as in America and Japan. The company's Italian facility is close to Milan where ST Microelectronics is also building a new factory that will start production later this year to make chips for applications like power management.
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By expanding its operations in Europe and the US where it has committed $20bn (opens in new tab) to build a fab in Ohio, Intel is trying to cut down its reliance on Asian countries. For the past several decades, semiconductor manufacturing has moved from America and Europe to Asia where 80 percent of the world's chips are currently made.
During a recent investor day meeting, Intel CEO Patrick P. Gelsinger (opens in new tab) explained that hopefully by the end of this decade, 30 percent of chips will be made in the US (up from 12%) and 20 percent will be made in Europe (up from 9%).
Although Intel has yet to finalize which country its new European facilities will be built in, an official announcement could come any day now.
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Via The Register (opens in new tab)
