What you need to know
- The European Chips Act will provide €6.8 billion to Intel to help build a chip fab in Magdeburg, Germany.
- Construction on the site is set to begin in the first half of 2023 and to wrap up at some point in 2027.
- €2.72 billion of the funding will be allocated this year, and the rest of it will go to Intel over the coming years.
Intel has big plans for chip fabs over the next few years. A mega site is on the way to Magdeburg, Germany, thanks in part to funding outlined by the European Chips Act. €6.8 billion (roughly $7.3 billion) will go toward the fab in Germany, with €2.72 billion set to be used this year. The exact amount was confirmed in a federal budget statement (PDF) released on Friday, June 3, 2022 (via Tom's Hardware).
Construction on the mega site is expected to begin in the first half of 2023 and be completed in 2027. It will include two Angstrom-era large chip fabs. These will be used to create Intel 20A nodes and other nodes in the future.
Intel plans to use the Magdeburg mega site for both its own branded processors as well as its Intel Foundry Services.
While €6.8 billion is a large sum of money, it only covers 40% of the fab, which is expected to cost €17 billion. That figure was determined by the fact that the European Chips Act specified the percentage of the cost that it will cover.
Germany is one of several countries that will see large investment from Intel following the European Chips Act being enacted in February of this year. Intel announced plans to invest as much as €80 billion within the EU, including Ireland, Italy, Poland, and Spain. Notably, the UK will not see investment from Intel due to Brexit.
