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Intel United Kingdom

Intel Not Considering UK Chip Factory After Brexit (bbc.com) 283

The boss of Intel says the US chipmaker is no longer considering building a factory in the UK because of Brexit. The BBC reports: Pat Gelsinger told the BBC that before the UK left the EU, the country "would have been a site that we would have considered." But he added: "Post-Brexit... we're looking at EU countries and getting support from the EU." Intel is investing up to $95 billion on opening and upgrading semiconductor plants in Europe over the next 10 years, as well as boosting its US output. But while Mr Gelsinger said the firm "absolutely would have been seeking sites for consideration" in the UK, he said Brexit had changed this. "I have no idea whether we would have had a superior site from the UK," he said. "But we now have about 70 proposals for sites across Europe from maybe 10 different countries. "We're hopeful that we'll get to agreement on a site, as well as support from the EU... before the end of this year."

Microchips are vital components in millions of products from cars to washing machines, but they have been in short supply this year due to surging demand and supply chain issues. It has led to shortages of popular goods like cars and computers and driven up prices - issues Mr Gelsinger said were set to continue into Christmas. "There is some possibility that there may be a few IOUs under the Christmas trees around the world this year," he said. "Just everything is short right now. And even as I and my peers in the industry are working like crazy to catch up, it's going to be a while." He said things would "incrementally" improve next year but were unlikely to stabilize until 2023.

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Intel Not Considering UK Chip Factory After Brexit

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  • by Dorianny ( 1847922 ) on Thursday October 07, 2021 @09:21PM (#61871043) Journal
    The close cultural and historical connections between the US and the U.K made the U.K the ideal location for U.S business trading with the E.U. That is no longer true, the U.K is now just another small player in a world dominated by giants.
    • by MacMann ( 7518492 ) on Thursday October 07, 2021 @11:38PM (#61871265)

      UK has the fifth largest national economy in the world, it is not a "small player".
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

      The margins are a bit small between 5th and 7th place on that list of national GDP so UK may lose it's top 5 position for a variety of reasons but getting out of the top 10 is unlikely without some earth shattering event.

      I remember some politician claiming that because of Brexit the use of the English language in the rest of Europe would disappear. Whatever. The official language of OPEC is English. During the Olympics all public announcements are required to be in English, French, and the native language of the host nation. By international law the pilots of vessels that travel internationally by air or sea must be proficient in English. International banking in done in English. I'm sure I can some up with more examples on the need to know English in Europe.

      Whatever the reason English is spoken in Europe it comes down to doing business with the largest economies of the world. English may not be all that common among the people of nations like China, Japan, and Germany (3 of the 5 top economies, none of which have many native English speakers) but if people from these nations get together in a room to do some business then in what language can we expect them to converse? Hindi? Japanese? German? Russian? Or English? Probably English. Why English? Because these same people will likely have to do business with USA, Canada, Australia, and... UK.

      As a side note...
      I have begun to wonder why is it that Russia seems to get so much global influence? They are not a top 10 global economy. Not any more. They do have nuclear weapons, but then so do many other nations. They have a large military, but then so do other nations. They have a space program, but then so do many other nations. After all this time and their not so great economy I have to wonder how many of their nuclear weapons actually work. Russia has nuclear powered submarines, icebreakers, and other vessels, which one would assume gives them the ability to project military power globally. I read somewhere that if any of the Russian nuclear powered icebreakers were to try to leave the Arctic circle that the ships would overheat for lack of ice cold water to cool them. It should be obvious that it is possible to build nuclear powered icebreakers that could go to break ice around Antarctica. It should also be obvious that being able to break ice around Antarctica would be a good idea for any nation with ambitions to extend their influence around the world. Therefore it is likely safe to conclude Russia has no such ambitions.

      Russia is not near the global force it used to be and yet seems to get more respect than nations with greater economic output such as UK. Canada has more economic output than Russia. People around the world might dismiss Canada as little more than "America's hat" but they are no joke. No doubt Russia can still be a major threat to neighboring nations because of their military and economic capability but Canada would likely come out ahead if Russia and Canada were to have a war. The UK would certainly win in a fight against Russia. Australia could likely beat Russia single-handedly. This will certainly be true once Australia gets their mitts on some nuclear powered submarines, which is supposed to happen soon.

      My point is that UK has a lot of money, a powerful military, and so many other things going for it that it is not a "small player" in much of anything. UK is a "giant". Maybe when compared to the European Union the UK may not look so big but that requires treating the combined might of France, Italy, Germany, and other EU members as a single entity. That may make EU the biggest kid on the block, perhaps bigger than even China or USA, but that still puts UK in the top 5 since EU contains Germany, and Germany is in 4th place in economic output.

      • by Dorianny ( 1847922 ) on Thursday October 07, 2021 @11:58PM (#61871297) Journal
        GDP: U.S 22 Trillion, China 16T, E.U 16T. The rest of the world including the U.K's 3T doesn't even come close to comparing.
        FYI: Russia is a regional power, Russia has neither the military nor economic might to project power far outside its borders but because of its sheer size that power can easily be mistaken for global power such as that the U.S possess.
      • by Calinous ( 985536 ) on Friday October 08, 2021 @01:22AM (#61871405)

        "because of Brexit the use of the English language in the rest of Europe would disappear"
        Unfortunately, most of the World do not speak English. They speak Americanish, or USA-ish, or whatever it is called.
        And as long as the European Union will contain countries where English is a "legal" language (like Malta, Ireland, ...) its status as an official language of the European Union will not disappear.

        As for Russia's influence... partially it has a huge economic clout because large parts of Europe depends on Russian gas for heating in the winter. And the natural gas market doesn't really have elasticity, or second sources.
        Also, there's the Russians' capacity to do acts of war abroad (like poisoning the citizen of other countries) and suffer through the consequences.

        • by ISayWeOnlyToBePolite ( 721679 ) on Friday October 08, 2021 @03:07AM (#61871539)

          The lingua franca will always be english! (If you don't appreciate and mod me funny for that joke, may all your beer be warm like the britts).

          • by mjwx ( 966435 ) on Friday October 08, 2021 @08:05AM (#61872093)

            The lingua franca will always be english! (If you don't appreciate and mod me funny for that joke, may all your beer be warm like the britts).

            Yes, but this is because English is an extremely fault tolerant language. You can mangle words, sentence structure, grammar, the lot and still have it understood by a competent English speaker. To do business in Mandarin, you need to speak it very well, to do business in English, you just need to speak it.

            Even Spanish doesn't come anywhere near to being as fault tolerant as English, plus a lot of people who are used to a non-European based language often really struggle with the concept of conjugation.

      • UK has the fifth largest national economy in the world, it is not a "small player".

        Had. After the damage of Brexit and Covid it will be #7 at best.

        Whatever the reason English is spoken in Europe it comes down to doing business with the largest economies of the world.

        This is a historical artifact. English is not the first trade language, as the term "lingua franca" literally shows, and won't be the last.

        I have begun to wonder why is it that Russia seems to get so much global influence?

        That is the same inert

      • I remember some politician claiming that because of Brexit the use of the English language in the rest of Europe would disappear.

        It's fun to judge a government by the single stupidest thing an elected politician said. It's not particularly useful though, but since you're probably either American or English I'll happily play the game with you. We could raise the stakes and make it only elected officials who held high office at the time of utterance if you like...

        The official language of OPEC is English.

        And

        • The official language of OPEC is English.

          And you know Ireland which is a member state.

          Ireland is a member of OPEC? When did that happen? Someone should update the Wikipedia page.
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

          How many OPEC members have a majority of the people that speak English? How long have they been a member?

          This bit of trivia about OPEC using English as its official language stuck in my memory because of how odd it seemed that a group of nations would come to agree to use a language that was foreign to all of them. It makes sense once one realizes just how much each nation hates e

      • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Friday October 08, 2021 @04:10AM (#61871635)

        UK has the fifth largest national economy in the world, it is not a "small player".
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ [wikipedia.org]... [wikipedia.org]

        The economy of a country itself is irrelevant to a business. What is relevant is the economy of a trading block and the amount of barriers to trading. That pushes UK far down the list beaten by effectively *any* EU country, and if Intel wasn't targeting the EU specifically it also puts UK below Canada and Brazil who both give access to the NAFTA.

        Or to put it another way you could build a factory in the UK and have free access to a country with a GDP of $3120bn
        Or you could build a factory in Montenegro with it's GDP of $4.9bn and yet have free access to an economy with a GDP of $15167bn.
        That's not hard math.

        The UK chose to isolate itself. That makes it a small player. In terms of desirability it may have the 5th largest GDP of any nation, but it's down the list somewhere in the 50s behind the EU countries, American countries, and Pacific rim countries in terms of desirable location to put a new manufacturing facility.

        I have begun to wonder why is it that Russia seems to get so much global influence? They are not a top 10 global economy.

        Because it's a member of multiple trading blocs including the CIS and the EAEU all of which increases the desirability of a country by reducing the expenses and overheads of corporations dealing with them.

        • by skegg ( 666571 ) on Friday October 08, 2021 @07:28AM (#61872001)

          >> Or you could build a factory in Montenegro

          How stable is the government in Montenegro?
          You could also build a factory in China and have free access to the world's second largest economy ... until the CCP decides otherwise.

          What you get in the UK is a large economy with a stable, democratic government that respects the law.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

        UK has the fifth largest national economy in the world, it is not a "small player".

        The USA has states with a stronger economy than the whole UK. Britain is an also-ran.

      • Fifth largest overall, pre-Brexit. But it was based on services that the EU won't be permitted to utilise as the UK aligns with the US.

      • It doesn't matter how big a SINGLE economy the UK is. It's about the MARKET you can reach when you manufacture there. And the UK hasn't actually managed to get any decent trade deals going, that makes it a favorable position over any other non-EU country in the region. Nor does the UK have any geographical or natural resource advantage, that would make it a favorable place to put an IC manufacturing plant.
        This is specifically, because the UK is not the major consumer of those chips. All of Europe is, and pr

      • by zmooc ( 33175 )

        That list lists traditional countries. It's a bit nonsensical from a business perspective; why would California not be in it while Germany is? From a business perspective, all countries in the EU are one. When taking that into account, the UK remains at the 5th place but it's economy is a mere 20% of the smallest economy from the top 3: the EU. Outside of the top 3, the only place where Intel has a fab site is in Israel.

        Within the EU there may be an additional factor, and that's ASML, which totally dominate

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • by Malc ( 1751 )

        Maybe you should look at the GDP based on purchasing power parity:
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

        That might partly explain why you observe Russia punching above it's weight based simply on size of economy. And you should look at labour costs, which makes it much cheaper for such countries to achieve more.

        Anyway, I'd expect Ireland to become the US's gateway to the EU now, even after annoucing an increase corp. tax simply because of English and cultural ties (how many Americans claim to be Irish-Americans

  • by khchung ( 462899 ) on Thursday October 07, 2021 @10:01PM (#61871107) Journal

    The choice between anywhere in EU 20+ countries where they can hire anyone among these 20+ countries, vs in one country with a limited pool of workers. Unless your main clients are all in UK, why would any sane company choose UK instead of EU?

    This is entirely expected before the Brexit referendum, and still the Leavers voted for Brexit. Well, you got who you voted for, now you enjoy the results. I just wonder when would the pound fall.

    • Narrow focus (Score:2, Interesting)

      This is entirely expected before the Brexit referendum, and still the Leavers voted for Brexit. Well, you got who you voted for, now you enjoy the results. I just wonder when would the pound fall.

      One problem with our current political discourse is where people narrowly focus on one small aspect of a large, multivariate problem in order to sell their side of the story.

      And it gets worse if the MSM highlights that one report and downplays others, swaying the public opinion one way or the other based on the narrow, highlighted aspects instead of the overall benefits or costs.

      So in this case the UK lost a chip factory due to Brexit, but (also due to Brexit) more of the tax revenue stays in the UK.

      The UK

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by DerekLyons ( 302214 )

        So in this case the UK lost a chip factory due to Brexit, but (also due to Brexit) more of the tax revenue stays in the UK.

        There won't be a factory, there won't be any tax revenue.

        it gets worse if the MSM highlights that one report and downplays others, swaying the public opinion one way or the other based on the narrow, highlighted aspects instead of the overall benefits or costs.

        Yeah, no. The problem here isn't the media. It's in your mirror.

      • Re:Narrow focus (Score:5, Insightful)

        by BadDreamer ( 196188 ) on Friday October 08, 2021 @01:25AM (#61871409) Homepage

        The UK will be shattered because of Brexit. No-one has managed to name ONE single metric where the UK is better off after Brexit. Not one. Sure, in theory more taxes remain - but the UK was a net beneficiary of the EU taxes, so that does not make up for it.

        When it's hundreds of things getting worse, and not one getting better, the answer to your question ought to be rather clear.

        • by Admiral Krunch ( 6177530 ) on Friday October 08, 2021 @02:24AM (#61871479)

          No-one has managed to name ONE single metric where the UK is better off after Brexit.

          They have the most empty space on their shelves ready for innovative new products.

          They almost never get stuck behind a petrol tanker on the motorway now.

          • No-one has managed to name ONE single metric where the UK is better off after Brexit.

            They have the most empty space on their shelves ready for innovative new products.

            They almost never get stuck behind a petrol tanker on the motorway now.

            Alternative modes of transportation has already diminished their reliance on petrol: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

          • by N1AK ( 864906 )
            Genuinely not making this up but there was a local news story a couple of days ago about a queue of cars that followed a tanker (which turned out not to be fuel) for miles onto a building site hoping it was going to a garage; but at least I have a black passport now so thank god for brexit...
          • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

            They almost never get stuck behind a petrol tanker on the motorway now.

            No, you get stuck behind the cars that ran out of gas on the motorway instead.

      • "So in this case the UK lost a chip factory due to Brexit,"
        Well, to be fair, the UK lost its place in the race for a chip factory - there were 70 sites suggested in 10 EU countries.
        Whether the UK would have been able to won, and whether the factory would have remained on UK soil for long are questions without clear answers.
        (and yes, large companies closing down shop and moving is always a possibility - see Nokia and its Germany-based plant in Bochum).

      • Re:Narrow focus (Score:5, Informative)

        by remi2402 ( 816874 ) on Friday October 08, 2021 @01:43AM (#61871433)

        but (also due to Brexit) more of the tax revenue stays in the UK.

        Got a reference for that? Or are you just pulling that out of thin air? Because the UK had (as in many instances) a special treatment with the rest of the EU: the rebate. So the UK never lost anything to the EU since 1985.

        As for tax revenue itself, with nearly all UK industries reporting drops in sales due to the loss of access to the single market... I really can't see how tax revenue could ever go up.

        • but (also due to Brexit) more of the tax revenue stays in the UK.

          Got a reference for that? Or are you just pulling that out of thin air? Because the UK had (as in many instances) a special treatment with the rest of the EU: the rebate. So the UK never lost anything to the EU since 1985.

          As for tax revenue itself, with nearly all UK industries reporting drops in sales due to the loss of access to the single market... I really can't see how tax revenue could ever go up.

          I believe the reference is https://i.insider.com/5a5dbcf5... [insider.com] (I wish I could say he was joking).

        • Seconded. And let us all remember Farage admitting on its own lies, just a few hours after the vote, https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
      • More tax revenue?? (Score:3, Informative)

        by m1970 ( 8182670 )
        Most of the EU revenue flowed back. Now lots of tax revenue is wasted on replicating services the EU used to provide to the UK. If you look at the whole economy, more money is now spend on extra customs regulations than what used to be paid into the EU budget. You can say a lot about brexit, but it does not save money!!!
      • Lots of Evidence (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Roger W Moore ( 538166 ) on Friday October 08, 2021 @02:54AM (#61871519) Journal

        One problem with our current political discourse is where people narrowly focus on one small aspect of a large, multivariate problem in order to sell their side of the story.

        But it isn't just "one small aspect" when it comes to Brexit it's lots of aspects some of which are quite serious and noticeable. First UK export businesses dealing with perishables were severely damaged by customs delays, then there was the problem of shipping to Northern Ireland which still has not been addressed, supermarkets can't keep shelves stocked due to a combination of a lack of delivery drivers and difficulty with imports, next there is the lack of lorry drivers causing petrol stations to run out of fuel and now Intel is cancelling a major chip factory and there is an ongoing dispute with France over fishing that threatens to disrupt power.

        When supermarkets can't stock the shelves, the army is called in to deliver fuel to petrol stations and businesses are shutting down left, right and centre you have _serious_ problems. This is not just a normal recession it's an economic crisis and even the government tacitly acknowledges it was caused by Brexit since their solution to e.g. the lack of lorry drivers is to allow visas so EU drivers can drive in the UK, reversing a key change that Brexit made. Exactly how much more evidence do you need that Brexit is a raging dumpster fire?

        • Exactly how much more evidence do you need that Brexit is a raging dumpster fire?

          Logic didn't work up front. Evidence hasn't worked for the past few years. Heaping more on them won't make any difference.

          I know someone who voted for Brexit despite working in a small business that was wholly dependent on EU exports. After the entire company folded and this person lost their job due their orders going effectively to zero they continued to blame the government and still fully supported the idea of Brexit. She's still collecting welfare checks nearly a year later.

          Likewise I know someone who

      • "The question is, was Brexit *overall* a better deal for *the people* of the UK?" Answer - No
        "There will be some temporary inconveniences because of the Brexit, but there were well-documented problems with the EU membership, the problems were not addressed by an uncaring remote government, and eventually the people got fed up and voted to leave." - and what might those be (apart from xenophobia and racist attitudes from the ignorant towards EU citizens)?
      • The question is, was Brexit *overall* a better deal for *the people* of the UK?

        So far there's been not a single success story as a benefit to the people themselves. Businesses are negatively effected, the economy is negatively affected, inflation increased, freedoms have reduced, and all the benefits of independence are totally at odds for a country which wants to be a global player. I like that you have hope, but I'm beginning to really question your judgement.

        The UK will become stronger and more independent because of Brexit ...narrowly focused, individual cases notwithstanding.

        Now tell us why you think that is a good thing when success of a nation and the well being of its people are measured on a gl

      • So in this case the UK lost a chip factory due to Brexit, but (also due to Brexit) more of the tax revenue stays in the UK.

        The UK didn't just lose a chip factory, it lost tax revenues from a chip factory. Can't profit at all from what you're not involved with.

      • I live in a country which had a huge union and basically it broke down 1918... believe me the UK will need decades to recover from the Brexit we have been there done that in Austria ca 1918. Also the public view on the EU in the UK was simply wrong, decades of misinformation in the tabloids did its job. It still is and often domestic problems were constantly blamed on the EU. Also many of the Brexit problems atm are basically downplayed by a simple, but the EU has them also... main difference is, we dont ha

      • Except the UK is lowering tax got companies and raising taxes on low-wage workers. It is bent on losing high value industries.

    • What you said.

      I've seen other comments questioning "why" Brexit makes the UK unsuitable and your comment hits the nail on the head.
      It's about the available workforce.

      The UK *would* have been one of the first choices, due to its low business rates.

      That's a very attractive prospect - or it was.
      Clearly Intel have crunched the numbers, low business rates won't make up for import/export costs and a now dwindling supply of skilled labour.

      It remains to be seen just how low the UK will stoop in future, to try and c

  • by hoofie ( 201045 ) <mickey@@@mouse...com> on Thursday October 07, 2021 @11:34PM (#61871253)

    Let's just completely ignore that in the 90s there were a number of Fabs in the UK which all closed down [ Nat Semi, Motorola] - I worked in one of them - as their US parents sought cheap workers in the Far East.

    I doubt Intel ever seriously planned to build one to start with.

    • The US is very keen on having chip manufacture outside of the Far East, preferably in both the US and in friendly countries, The factory will be built.

    • A chip fab in an EU country could enjoy certain tax advantages selling product inside the EU, that wasn't the case in the 90's I suspect.

  • Note that the MSM, including this site, blame things on Brexit, but never report the positives, and successes, of Brexit. Please be aware of media bias when seeing stories like this. (Whether you are for-or-against Brexit, bias is simply bad for democracy).
  • by ecuador_gr ( 944749 ) on Friday October 08, 2021 @05:54AM (#61871813) Homepage
    It's not a chip factory, it's called a "crisp" factory in the UK.
  • by VeryFluffyBunny ( 5037285 ) on Friday October 08, 2021 @06:25AM (#61871871)
    Switzerland used to have a thriving research & development sector in chemical engineering & biomedical sciences. They were a world leader. Then they chose not to join the EU, for obvious banking reasons & didn't listen to their scientific community, & that cut off a lot of funding & opportunities to collaborate with the EU science community. Isolationism is really bad for science as leaving the richest, best educated trading block in the world & setting proactively hostile policies towards immigrants is bad for setting up global hi-tech manufacturing.
  • Brexit isn't working (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Martin S. ( 98249 ) on Friday October 08, 2021 @08:27AM (#61872161) Journal

    Pretty much all the negative predictions made by the remain campaign and dismissed by the leave campaign as fear mongering have been vindicated.

    Brexit has not made Britain Great Again, it is making the UK the sick man of Europe once again.

  • by niks42 ( 768188 ) on Friday October 08, 2021 @09:37AM (#61872391)
    If GB is to survive a post-Brexit world, putting a semi fab here is not my favourite kind of industry. The idea of semi fab location is to put it in relatively low cost locations, where people care less about huge amounts of water and energy required, or toxic waste to be disposed of, and it can be run in a relatively automatied fashion, with no skills transfer from an IP or design point of view, and all of the profits go out of the back door back to the US. Personally, I don't think that is the kind of branding we want attached to GB in the future. You'd find GB just creating a freezone in which these factories operate outside of the virtual borders of the United Kingdom just for a few thousand jobs.

    I think we have some real skills to exploit in GB for technologies that can be exported; for addressing the challenges of global heating; developing circular economies. I would look to Europe and see what they need from a third country that would really, really benefit them. How about being the recycling masters of Europe? Don't ship your plastics and all that around the world to be deposited in a stream in Myanmar. Send them to the GB where we will develop advanced recycling technologies; where we will work with the EU on developing packaging for consumables that can be better recycled; on enzyme technologies to create usable source material from plastics.; using advanced AI techniques for sorting and separating; embracing the need for recycling and re-use for materials for batteries and electric vehicles that will be consumed in the sudden rush to electrification - where there's muck, there's brass; building yet more off- and on-shore wind energy that we can sell to Europe via the connectors, to compete with the production of electricity via gas. Grow the recycling and long term storage of nuclear waste from the French and other big users of nuclear energy in Europe. Work with the US on the development and production of new nuclear energy sources like Thorium in container sized delivery for commuity power projects and sell the products to Europe - hey, we can work with the US on nuclear power plants for submarines, why not work on making small community nukes in a collaboration?.

    Hey Europe, we can be your recycling friend next door, and you don't have to worry about pesky EU regulations.

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