Earlier today, Intel’s CEO, Pat Gelsinger, said the company is seeking 8 billion euros ($9.7 billion) in public subsidies for the construction of a semiconductor manufacturing plant in Europe. Of course, this semiconductor plant will focus on advanced chips. He said in an interview “Our request to the American and European governments is that we can do this here (build a factory) to be more competitive than doing it in Asia”. A spokesperson from Intel also confirms that the company will need huge subsidies to build plants. Today, Gelsinger will also meet with Thierry Breton, Commissioner of the European Union’s Internal Market, in Brussels to discuss semiconductor strategy.
Last month, Gelsinger announced Intel’s IDM2.0 strategy, plans to spend up to $20 billion to build two factories in Arizona. The company will open this foundry to external customers to regain its leading position in the chip manufacturing industry.
In the field of semiconductor chips, Intel dominated the industry for decades. However, in recent years, due to the continuous delay of new process research and development, it has gradually lost its advantages in the field of chip manufacturing.
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Intel’s lag has been so strong that it relies on TSMC to manufacturer some of its advanced chips. However, the company believes that it will make better chips than Apple pretty soon. Gelsinger told Intel employees that Intel must provide the PC ecosystem with better products than Apple produces. Of course, he didn’t explicitly refer to Apple in the meeting. He simply used the phrase “lifestyle company in Cupertino”. Of course, there is only one “lifestyle company in Cupertino” that produces chips, Apple.
Whether or not this plant will bring Intel back on track in the global chip industry remains to be seen.
Intel new processors will compete with the Ryzen 5000H
According to recent reports, Intel is working on new processors (Tiger Lake-H45 processors) which will arrive later this year. These processors will have up to eight cores (maybe six) and will be a direct competitor to the Ryzen 5000H.
A few days ago, Intel shows off the performance of the new processor. This chip is a flagship processor with eight cores and can operate at up to 5 GHz. Given the available data, we are probably talking about the Core i9-11980H model. There are also reports that this chip will have 20 PCIe 4.0 lanes, Wi-Fi 6E, and Thunderbolt 4. As for the launch date, the new Tiger Lakes will arrive in the second quarter of this year.