Intel is trying to kickstart a bidding war in Europe, with various Governments desperately trying to convince the big US processor to set up a plant in their Country, this is the same Company that tried to get the Australian Government to invest in a new chip processing plant.
Italy, Germany and France all have their hands up as Germany emerges as the frontrunner to land a big mega processor factory despite Apple recently dumping the brand in favour of their own processors.
When John Howard was Prime Minister of Australia, Intel senior management from the USA, rocked up to try and convince the Federal Australian Government to invest in a chip processing plant, the only problem was that the multibillion-dollar Intel wanted Australia to stump up over one billion dollars for the privilege of doing business with them.
At the time I owned CRN and there were two key questions that Intel failed to answer.
They were, what is the revenue benefit to Australia and how many people would be employed.
As we pointed out at the time Intel plants are primarily robotic so employing thousands of people was out of the question.
As John Howard said to me later “There was nothing in the proposed deal for Australia”.
The new European plants would be part of a drive by the U.S. group to build cutting-edge manufacturing capacity in Europe to help avoid future supply shortages of the kind currently crippling the automotive and CE industries.
Rome is already in talks with Intel about the potential investment, which according to preliminary estimates would be worth more than 4.7 billion, the sources who are involved in the discussions said.
One of them said the total could even reach around A$12 billion euros, depending on Intel’s plans.
Despite the big outlay the factory would create no more than 1,000 direct jobs in Italy, they added.
Intel declined to comment on its plans.
The U.S. group’s biggest project in Europe currently is a planned megafactory and Germany has emerged as a leading candidate for the site which is crucial for the German car industry and brands such as BMW, Audi and Mercedes Benz.
In Australia BMW cars will be devoid of features such as cameras, and Wi Fi charging next year claim BMW dealers in Sydney because of a lack of components. Also missing will be automatic boot openers.
The plans come as the European Union aims to reduce its dependence on semiconductor supplies from the United States and China, and the chip supply crisis shows no signs of abating according to Reuters.
Chipmakers are scrambling to boost output after the work-from-home trend during the pandemic led to explosive demand for consumer electronics such as smartphones and computers.
The shortages have hit the automotive industry – a major pillar of the European economy – the hardest, as chipmakers have generally preferred consumer electronics customers because they buy more advanced, higher-margin chips.
