In Germany, a check for 10 billion euros to the American Intel is causing a stir

This project is that of a mega-factory 150 kilometers west of Berlin, to enable Intel to produce electronic chips in Europe. Because the American giant is also considering other investments in France, Ireland and Poland in particular.

The German factory is also part of the “Chips Act”, the European Union’s program to reach 20% of the world semiconductor market by 2030. This means quadrupling the current production of the Old Continent. The European plan plans to mobilize a total of 43 billion euros in public and private investment, with the aim of regaining a place alongside Asia and America in this strategic industry.

Some 3,000 jobs at stake

Germany has done everything to ensure that this mega-factory is on its territory. The site is expected to create some 3,000 jobs and tens of thousands more at nearby suppliers. These investments are considered all the more important as Europe’s leading economy, which went into recession at the start of the year, doubts its economic model and is seeking to lay the foundations for a recovery. Germany would also like not to stop there: other investments are planned in the same sector, with the arrival of another Taiwanese giant, specializing in the manufacture of electronic chips.

But the battle is also political, with a debate across the Rhine on the amount of the subsidy granted to Intel to settle in Germany. It went from 7 to 10 billion euros because of inflation, explains the American company, for a project valued at 30 billion euros. Some therefore consider this subsidy too important for the taxpayer, in a financially complicated moment for Berlin which is facing the onset of a recession and which doubts its economic model.

Record investment by a foreign company in Germany

Giving so much money to such a profitable American company is not to the liking of part of the political class and certain economists, who advance a formidable calculation: the State will subsidize each job created to the tune of one million euros. Proponents of the project respond that this plant will be the biggest investment ever made by a foreign company in Germany, implying that it deserves to break the piggy bank of the national budget.