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Intel has big plans for the future but does not anticipate a chip plant in the UK. After Brexit, the company did not consider the country a good place for its expansion according to the IDM 2.0 strategy, so it is currently evaluating several proposals from 10 other European countries.
Last month, Intel opened two state-of-the-art chip factories in Arizona. These are key to the company's revamped IDM 2.0 strategy, as the new Intel Foundry Services division looks to undertake contract preparation for other companies for the first time in history.
Intel is looking to build a few more chip manufacturing plants in Europe, but the company is still in talks with various officials in the region to determine the best location for new factories, as well as to obtain the necessary subsidies for the draft.
In an interview with the BBC, CEO Pat Gelsinger said the company saw the UK as a potential location for a chip factory, but it was no longer an option due to Brexit. After the UK decided to leave the European Union, Intel heard less than 70 site proposals from 10 other European countries, some of which seemed more appealing to Intel in the current context.
Gelsinger said he was confident the company could reach an agreement on setting up two new factories later this year. Negotiations with EU officials are also well underway and Intel hopes to take advantage of the block's recovery and grants from the Resilience Fund. In the case of Intel, it plans to invest up to $ 95 million in the ambitious project.
Meanwhile, the industry as a whole will have to fight chip shortages, which will cause automakers to scramble to get contracts for mature process nodes. At the time of writing, more than 85% of the world's semiconductor manufacturing capacity is concentrated in Asian countries, while the United States and Europe account for 12% and 2.8%, respectively.
Gelsinger is one of the proponents of the "global equilibrium supply chain", but building chip factories is a multi-year endeavor that costs between $ 10 and $ 20 billion per plant. While TSMC, Samsung, and GlobalFoundries are also investing billions in their expansion plans, it will take years to materialize.
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