As economies all over the world continue to compete for a limited supply of the components needed to produce finished goods, there are moves afoot to meet Europe’s continued appetite for microprocessors – and not just for the IT sector; car makers need chips too now, and Intel is planning to build new factories to meet the growth in demand.
►Chip-maker may invest as much as €80 billion in next 10 years.
►Chips expected to be 20% of the cost of a premium car by 2030.
It is against this backdrop that Intel is planning to build two new advanced processor plants in Europe, investing around €80 billion over the coming decade to meet rising demand for mobile products and the car industry. It already has one factory in Ireland, and this is also set to be expanded.
Earlier this year, Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel, predicted that semiconductors will make up more than 20% of the total premium vehicle bill of materials (BOM) by 2030 – up from just 4% in 2019.
The EU, meanwhile, is looking at putting state-aid in place to encourage governments to subsidize the setting-up of chip plants to counter the continent’s dependency on producers in the US and China that has been exposed by the current imbalance between global demand and supply.
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