Intel blames Brexit for scrapping plans to build semiconductor plant in United Kingdom

Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, has cited Brexit as the reason for its decision not to establish a big new chipmaking facility in the United Kingdom. "UK would have been a place that we would have explored for a significant new facility while it was a part of the EU," Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger told the BBC.

Gelsinger emphasised that Intel certainly would have been exploring places for consideration. “I'm not sure if we would have gotten a better site than the UK. However, we currently have over 70 site proposals from about ten different nations across Europe. We're hoping to get a site agreement, as well as EU support, by the end of the year," he remarked.

Global Chip Crunch

The unbuilt, gleaming new Intel microchip production facility is the latest economic casualty of Brexit, which is predicted to have already cost the UK economy over $1 billion every week, including $24.5 billion in missed trade and a stunning $680.5 million in day-to-day administrative expenditures between 2020 and 2021.

Intel is now on the hunt for new chip manufacturing sites. The company's ambitious plans to adapt to the global scarcity of semiconductor plants, which has impacted a wide range of technologically complex goods, from computers and mobile devices to automobiles and industrial equipment, including expansion of its presence in Europe.

Intel intends to invest in chip-making facilities

Intel plans to spend up to $95 billion in Europe to build and upgrade chip-making facilities, in addition to the nearly $20 billion it has set aside to expand manufacturing capacity in Arizona, in an effort to reduce the West's reliance on foundries in Taiwan, China, and South Korea, which currently account for nearly 80% of the global microchip market. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), a contract chipmaker, controls more than half of the world's pure wafer market.

Today, the United States produces about 12% of the world's semiconductors, with the EU contributing another 10%. TSMC expects to invest $100 billion in boosting manufacturing over the next four years, while Samsung has revealed plans to invest $205 billion in its own chip-making output.

Global chip shortages have been blamed on a variety of factors, including Trump administration sanctions against major Chinese technology companies, a global surge in demand for home electronics as a result of Covid lockdowns and work-from-home restrictions, and various government and corporate efforts to promote "Smart Homes," "Smart Cities," and other similar concepts.

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