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 …
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!
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.
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?
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.
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