Friday, February 16th 2024
Report: Intel Seeks $2 Billion in Funding for Ireland Fab 34 Expansion
According to a Bloomberg report, Intel is seeking to raise at least $2 billion in equity funding from investors for expanding its fabrication facility in Leixlip, Ireland, known as Fab 34. The chipmaker has hired an advisor to find potential investors interested in providing capital for the project. Fab 34 is currently Intel's only chip plant in Europe that uses cutting-edge extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. It produces processors on the Intel 4 process node, including compute tiles for Meteor Lake client CPUs and expected future Xeon data center chips. While $2 billion alone cannot finance the construction of an entirely new fab today, it can support meaningful expansion or upgrades of existing capacity. Intel likely aims to grow Fab 34's output and/or transition it to more advanced 3 nm-class technologies like Intel 3, Intel 20A, or Intel 18A.
Expanding production aligns with Intel's needs for its own products and its Intel Foundry Services business, providing contract manufacturing. Intel previously secured a $15 billion investment from Brookfield Infrastructure for its Arizona fabs in exchange for a 49% stake, demonstrating the company's willingness to partner to raise capital for manufacturing projects. The Brookfield deal also set a precedent of using outside financing to supplement Intel's own spending budget. It provided $15 billion in effectively free cash flow Intel can redirect to other priorities like new fabs without increasing debt. Intel's latest fundraising efforts for the Ireland site follow a similar equity investment model that leverages outside capital to support its manufacturing expansion plans. Acquiring High-NA EUV machinery for manufacturing is costly, as these machines can reach up to $380 million alone.
Source:
Bloomberg
Expanding production aligns with Intel's needs for its own products and its Intel Foundry Services business, providing contract manufacturing. Intel previously secured a $15 billion investment from Brookfield Infrastructure for its Arizona fabs in exchange for a 49% stake, demonstrating the company's willingness to partner to raise capital for manufacturing projects. The Brookfield deal also set a precedent of using outside financing to supplement Intel's own spending budget. It provided $15 billion in effectively free cash flow Intel can redirect to other priorities like new fabs without increasing debt. Intel's latest fundraising efforts for the Ireland site follow a similar equity investment model that leverages outside capital to support its manufacturing expansion plans. Acquiring High-NA EUV machinery for manufacturing is costly, as these machines can reach up to $380 million alone.
17 Comments on Report: Intel Seeks $2 Billion in Funding for Ireland Fab 34 Expansion
When you consider all the billions in subsidies on top of the externalities that these corporations create that are burdened by the public at large (i.e. corporate money and political corruption in both legal [campaign contributions] and illegal ways, pollution, manipulation of the labor market, etc) they basically have been a NET burden on society and end up costing more than they ever help (and no, I don't see the creation of a 14900k as a "fair trade" for all the billions in taxpayer money Intel.has taken, the questionable ethical stances they have taken with respect to their actions in certain countries around the world, the manipulation of consumer markets by bribing OEMs, etc)
Ohio fab isn't even done yet and they going after this?
Really is tiring to see these mega-corps asking, and often getting handouts that they clearly don't need.
Good size tin cup
There's a saying
If you don't ask you'll never get it :laugh: