Germany’s finance minister Christian Lindner has said there is no money in the budget to meet Intel’s demands for higher subsidies for its new €17bn plant in eastern Germany, damping hopes of a deal.The US chipmaker was due to receive €6.8bn in government support for its fabrication plant, or fab, in Magdeburg, but is now demanding about €10bn, citing higher energy and construction costs.
In an interview last week with the Financial Times, Lindner said he opposed an increase in support. “There is no more money available in the budget,” he said. “We are trying to consolidate the budget right now, not expand it.”
Intel’s project is the largest foreign investment in postwar German history and is seen as pivotal to EU plans to double its share of the global semiconductor market from less than 10 per cent today to 20 per cent by 2030.