Intel holds back on the maxi investment of 5 billion in Italy (Veneto or Piedmont) – Corriere.it

Last March, Intel, the American digital giant, announced a plan for the production of semiconductors in Europe which would have led to the largest technological investment in Italy in the history of the Republic. But 10 months was enough to completely change the climate and group of Santa Clara, Californianow imposes a clear slowdown: no investment decision in Italy has been taken and everything is still being evaluated, say people close to the company’s top management.

A historic investment

Not what Pat Gelsinger, the CEO of Intel, had communicated last March. The press release from the group was clear at the time: Intel – it read – has announced plans for an initial investment of over 33 billion euros to build a state-of-the-art semiconductor mega-site in Germany, to establish a new research and development (R&D) and design center in France, and to expand capabilities in R&D, manufacturing, foundry services and back-end manufacturing in Ireland, Italy, Poland and Spain. And again: With this historic investment, Intel will bring its most advanced technology to the continent, helping the EU to create a next-generation European chip ecosystem.

The project in Italy

Italy would have five billion invested in a “back-end” packaging and production center, a particularly sophisticated segment of semiconductor production. Intel technicians had already come to Italy to carry out studies and prospecting on two sites where the factory should have been built, one in Veneto and alternatively one in Piedmont, and on the quality of the Polytechnics and engineering departments of Northern Italy. The plant was supposed to create five thousand direct jobs, among profiles with high qualifications. As prime minister, Mario Draghi had worked hard on this project with repeated contacts with Pat Gelsinger of Intel and so had the Minister of Innovation Vittorio Colao. The company informally announced a decision on the site by the end of last year. But now the whole project, at least for Italy, seems more and more on a dead end.