Intel Details Mega Investment in Europe to Tackle Supply Chain Problems

Intel has detailed a €33 billion investment to tackle supply chain problems in the semiconductor industry in Europe.

Intel’s EMEA MD, communication service providers, Robert Prince, spoke at a Red Hat roundtable in London Tuesday. He said the “historical investment for the company” last month was to “to balance the supply chain.”

The investment is the first phase of plans for Intel to invest as much as €80 billion in the European Union (EU) over the next decade. The financing will be spread along the entire semiconductor value chain. This will include everything from R&D to manufacturing to state-of-the art packaging technologies.

Intel said that increasing its manufacturing capacities across the EU will help bring various parts of the semiconductor value chain closer together. It will also increase supply chain resiliency in Europe.

“This is going across the whole supply chain, so we hopefully can help balance that global supply chain around semiconductors,” said Prince. So, not just manufacturing, but … bringing in some of the later node technologies into Europe, which we haven’t had for many years.”

The exec said the goal was to build a “competitive advantage in Europe.”

Increasing Demand for Semiconductors

Prince said the demands placed on the semiconductors industry are only set to increase.

Intel’s Robert Prince

“Depending on what data point we look at, the projection is that [the global market] will exceed 2 trillion chips [sold] by the end of the decade. All of the predictions we have seen show a massive demand for semiconductor. So how do we help balance that, not just in the manufacturing, but the whole supply chain so that we can de-risk our customers in terms of supply?”

He also said Intel wanted to get closer to customers.

“We were investing in Intel Foundry Services where we will build direct relationships with customers to build new technologies,” he said.

Worldwide semiconductor revenue increased more than 25% in 2021 to total $583.5 billion, crossing the $500 billion threshold for the first time, according to Gartner. Samsung Electronics regained the top spot from Intel for the first time since 2018, with revenue increasing nearly 32% in 2021.

Investment in the US, Too

The €33 billion includes plans to invest an initial €17 billion into a leading-edge semiconductor mega-site in Germany. Additionally, Intel is building a new R&D and design hub in France, and plans to invest in R&D, manufacturing and foundry services in Ireland, Italy, Poland and Spain.

The European investment follows $20 million ploughed into building two new chip factories in Ohio in January.