Germany wants to lure chipmakers with 14 billion euros of state aid

On Thursday, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said the German government wants to lure chipmakers with 14 billion euros of support, adding that a shortage of chips in everything from smartphones to cars "is a huge problem." .

In recent years, countries including the United States, the European Union, Japan, India, South Korea and other countries have incentive plans to revitalize the "localization" of components, trying to attract chip manufacturers to set up local factories to expand production through some preferential or subsidy policies. Now, Germany has also joined this cohort.

In February, the European Commission introduced new legislation in February to allow more chip manufacturing in Europe amid strong demand.

In March, U.S. chipmaker Intel announced it had chosen the German town of Magdeburg as the location for a new 17 billion euro mega-chip manufacturing complex. Government sources said the state was pushing for the project with billions of euros at the time.

It is understood that Intel has plans to set up factories in Germany with a total investment of about 90 billion euros. Among the first 33 billion euros of investment, the company focused on investing 17 billion euros in the construction of 2 semiconductor wafer factories in the Magdeburg region of Germany. Will try to produce chips below 2nm. There were also reports at the time, citing people familiar with the matter, that Intel received government grants for 29.4 percent of the cost of the project.

There are many more such examples in Magdeburg, Harbeck said, although German companies will still rely on producers elsewhere for components such as batteries. "We have to develop our own strategy to ensure the safety of raw materials," he said.