According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Intel wants to build a new factory in Israel. The US chip manufacturer estimated 25 billion US dollars (around 23 billion euros) for this. This is the largest foreign investment in the country to date, Netanyahu said. The factory in Kiryat Gat is scheduled to open in 2027 and will employ thousands, according to the Israeli Ministry of Finance. Accordingly, Israel wants to grant Intel 12.8 percent of its investment as a loan. In return, the tax rate that Intel pays in Israel is to be increased from five to 7.5 percent. According to the ministry, the deal should be finalized in a few weeks.
Intel has been active in Israel for some time
A spokesman for Intel in Israel initially declined to comment on the project. The US company has had several development centers and a factory in Israel since the 1970s. Around 12,000 of the 130,000 Intel employees worldwide work in the plant. In 2017, Intel bought the Israeli company Mobileye, which supplies technology for self-driving vehicles, for a good $15 billion.
The Israeli head of government spoke of the largest international investment in the country to date (archive)Image: Ronen Zvulun/Pool Reuters/AP/picture alliance
The US group is currently also negotiating the construction of a new chip factory in Magdeburg. The final details are to be negotiated over the weekend before Intel boss Pat Gelsinger is to sign the paper during his planned visit to the Federal Chancellery on Monday.
A new Intel factory is also to be built in Breslau
The big question is whether and under what conditions the subsidy volume will be increased. Originally, 6.8 billion euros had been promised, but an increase in the funding amount to around ten billion euros, which should come from a special fund of the Federal Ministry of Economics, is now under discussion. The Magdeburg plant was originally supposed to cost 17 billion euros, but now there is talk of 20 billion euros due to increased construction costs.
Computer animation of the future Intel plant in MagdeburgImage: Intel Corporation
Last Friday, Intel announced the start of a project in Poland. A factory for testing and assembling processors is to be built in Wroclaw for $4.6 billion. “Poland was just a bit hungrier to get the bid,” said CEO Gelsinger. Several states had offered themselves as a location. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called the factory “the largest greenfield investment in Poland’s history”. The federal government sees no competition in this with the plant in Magdeburg.
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