Intel and Germany sign agreement for $32.8 billion chip plant investment

BERLIN (AP) — Intel and the German government on Monday signed a deal that would see the U.S. company investing more than 30 billion euros ($32.8 billion) in a chip manufacturing site in the German city of Magdeburg, with financial support from Berlin.

Word of the agreement came as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger in the German capital.

Intel acquired the land for two semiconductor facilities in Magdeburg in eastern Germany in November, and the company says the first of them is expected to start production in four or five years.

“The investment in Germany means a significant expansion of Intel’s production capacity in Europe and is the biggest investment ever made by a foreign company in Germany,” Economy Minister Robert Habeck, who is also the country’s vice chancellor, said in a statement.

Plans, before the revised letter of intent was signed Monday, had foreseen a total investment of at least 17 billion euros.

Habeck’s ministry said that the government intends on supporting the project financially, a plan that will need approval by the European Union’s executive branch.

Neither it nor Intel gave details of the incentives. German news agency dpa, which didn’t name sources, reported that the government planned to provide 9.9 billion euros.

The “Silicon Junction” project in Magdeburg adds to Intel’s plans for an assembly and test facility near Wroclaw, Poland and an existing chip factory in Ireland.

In a speech to Germany’s main industry lobby group earlier Monday, Scholz highlighted efforts to encourage chip production in Europe, reducing his country’s dependence on imported chips and global supply chains.

If all investment plans currently being considered are implemented, “and we are working on this, including today, Germany will become one of the big global semiconductor production sites,” he said.