Intel will receive $8.5bn in direct funding and $11bn in loans from the US government to expand its capacity to make high-end chips, as it seeks to reinvent itself as a national champion in the sector and compete with the likes of Taiwan’s TSMC and South Korea’s Samsung.
US President Joe Biden will travel to Intel’s site in Chandler, Arizona, on Wednesday to announce the package, which will go towards building new facilities for the company in the south-western state, as well as in Ohio, New Mexico and Oregon.
Biden’s intervention in Arizona — one of a handful of swing states that will decide the US presidential election pitting him against Donald Trump — comes as the Democratic president is trying to boost his languishing approval ratings on the economy.