CNA – Germany’s Finance Minister Christian Lindner is refusing Intel’s demands for higher subsidies for a EUR17-billion (USD18-billion) chip plant, saying the country could not afford it, the Financial Times reported yesterday.
“There is no more money available in the budget,” the newspaper quoted Lindner as saying in an interview.
“We are trying to consolidate the budget right now, not expand it.”
The company was due to receive EUR6.8 billion in government support for its fabrication plant in Germany.
However, due to higher energy and construction costs, it is now demanding about EUR10 billion, the newspaper reported.
The company announced last year it had picked the central German city of Magdeburg for a new chip-making complex as a part of an USD88 billion investment drive across Europe, which included boosting a factory in Ireland, a packaging and assembly site in Italy and setting up a design and research facility in France.
Intel is among several chipmakers, including TSMC in Taiwan and Wolfspeed in the United States, seeking government funding to build a factories in Europe.