Intel has confirmed that Pat Gelsinger, the company’s CEO, will be visiting Europe next week. There he will meet with European Union officials and customers.
While it hasn’t been announced what Gelsinger will discuss. It is obvious, there is a huge chip shortage and Europe wants to play a bigger role in semiconductors and get some chip factories in Europe. Intel has announced it has plans to open up some factories in Europe. They will probably discuss if the opening of new factories can be done a bit faster, maybe even discuss locations and of course, how much Europe wants to contribute to Intel’s new factories.
Changes in direction under Gelsinger’s lead
Under the leadership of Pat Gelsinger, Intel has recently announced several significant changes in direction. Up until now, Intel has been a fairly self-centred company. It designed and produced its own chips, and the factories were hardly or not at all available for use by third parties. However, in light of the current chip shortages and the production problems that the company itself has faced in recent years, Gelsinger, as the recently appointed CEO, has decided to change course.
Intel now plans to open up its factories to produce chips for third parties, such as car manufacturers. In doing so, the company hopes to provide some breathing room with the current chip shortages. The company has also decided to outsource some of its own production to external factories. This mainly involves non-core Intel products such as I/O dies and chips for network devices.
New chip factories
In order to better handle the additional production capacity that will be needed if it makes its chip factories available to third parties, Intel has announced the construction of several new factories. Specifically, Intel has only shared its plans for a new factory in the US state of Arizona. However, the company also wants to produce more chips in Europe, which would require more factories. Currently, Intel is one of the manufacturers with production within the EU, with a few factories in Ireland.
EU really wants local chip production
Europe is working hard to change that to be less susceptible to the whims of the US and countries in Asia. Therefore, Intel’s plan to build factories in the EU will probably be rewarded by the European Union. The EU is also lobbying hard in Taiwan to attract more chip production to the continent. Earlier this week, it was announced that the EU wants to set up an investment forum later this year to market the continent as an attractive place to invest in chip factories.
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