back to article Intel may delay construction of German mega-fab to cut costs

Intel is set to delay construction of its planned semiconductor manufacturing plant at Magdeburg in Germany, and is said to be seeking further public subsidies for the project, citing increased costs as one reason for the rethink. The chip giant had intended to start construction work at the Magdeburg site sometime in the …

  1. elsergiovolador Silver badge

    Idea

    Given that Intel pretty much failed to innovate in the last decade or so and devices that actually could be useful seems abandoned (anyone remembers Optane? The low latency for working with small files was game changer. It's a shame they have not made the tech cheaper and more accessible at very least), I think the idea I have for Intel would be to close down completely. Imagine 100% cut on their costs!

    1. Snowy Silver badge

      Re: Idea

      One of the problems with Optane is Intel wanted it to be a high end solution, so where not that interested in making it cheaper and ultimately that killed it off.

  2. Mishak Silver badge

    Is there an opportunity here?

    For Europe to invest in native businesses, and reduce the reliance on others?

    1. elsergiovolador Silver badge

      Re: Is there an opportunity here?

      The problem in Europe is that there is too many bureaucrats and regulation and everyone would like to have their cut and they would just love to create grants or some other corruption inducing scheme to lure potential native businesses in. Of course whether they create a fab or not is irrelevant. Europe is all about gravy trains.

      No sane business that does not want to the mixed up in this is going to invest. Imagine getting investment going only to have some grumpy civil servant learned about it and feeling emboldened to run a small vendetta against it, because they haven't got their cut and sending his or her minions to do audit after audit and then getting company ground to a halt fighting court cases.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Is there an opportunity here?

        And in what way is your description of Europe any different than the US (where Senators only care about the pork) or the UK (where government investments is mostly for friends of the ruling party and other spiffs)?

        And what do you suggest as a solution to rectify this?

  3. Snowy Silver badge
    Coat

    In a down turn

    Could be they do not want to bring too much fab capacity on-line in the original time frame and want it to come on-line when the capacity is needed later on.

  4. DS999 Silver badge

    Germany should

    Tell them if it doesn't reach some specific stage of completion by a given date, that they will get no subsidies. If Intel walks call up TSMC and see if they would be interested in the same subsidy package to locate a fab there.

    1. ratonahat

      Re: Germany should

      TSMC already said they don’t want to build fabs in Europe since it is too expensive and there isn’t enough customers. Intel should instead build the fabs in Japan or Korea who are offering huge subsidies and are major markets. Both TSMC and Samsung are are enjoying huge subsidies in their Asian fabs. Cost of labor is also cheaper. Moreover, the Asian engineers are tend to be higher quality, which is one the reason TSMC and Samsung leapfrogged Intel.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Germany should

        … and the end-product is closer to market too- electronics faculties a building all of the stuff that needs processors, microcontrollers, memory, SSD, graphics etc. who builds PC/Laptop/server/EPoS in Germany any more ?? Certainly not Medion/Siemens/Diebold Nixdorf.

  5. TheInstigator

    I wonder if this is anything to do with ...

    Germany previously relying on Russian oil and the US (via Intel) putting some pressure on Germany ...

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