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Intel Gets Go-Ahead For $4 Billion Chip Plant In Ireland
alancronin writes "Intel has been planning to make its Ireland base one of three global manufacturing sites for its 14nm chips since May last year, and its now been given the okay by Ireland's lead planning agency. The new $4 billion plant will create around 4,300 jobs for the region in Co. Kildare, where Intel already has around 4,000 on staff. The two-year plan involves redeveloping its existing operation, expanding and shifting to make its smaller, more efficient 14nm process. Intel's plans don't stop there, however. It still plans to roll out 10nm products sometime in 2015."
I'm sure the reason they chose Ireland was because of the tax breaks...
I don't care if the reason why they place their facility on Ireland is the low taxes. At least they are giving the Irish people jobs in return, unlike many other corporations. Also, I get to buy cheap processors that were not manufactured in Asia.
absolutely, its ony 12.5% as opposed to the the UK and france where it is in the 20's.
also due to the recession and austerity, ireland is very competitive when it comes to wages.
logical choice.
It comes at a cost - the Irish government is famous for encouraging huge foreign businesses to come in and set up to bring in thousands of jobs at a time at the expense of encouraging any sort of local entrepreneur. As a result, there are quite a few towns where a disproportionate number of jobs depend not just on a specific industry, but on a specific company within that industry.
When that company leaves for even cheaper pastures, the town's in trouble.
Except where it matters.
I believe that aviation, military and other safety critical grade equipment (medical?) are still permitted to use PbSn 60/40 solder. The SnCu ones aren't well characterised enough and still appear to be slightly too prone to tin whiskers for long term critical use.
Though I don't know if they've done much by the way of soldering inside chips recently anyway.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Wanna bet they'll still shift the profit to Cayman island and the only tax the Irish will collect is the income tax of the employees?
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
The Micks will be disappointed when they realise they are not making potato chips
Even if they'd be potato chips, can you imagine the nutrition level of a 14 nm potato? And if you get to pay $400+ for a "can" of those, would this be a reason for exultation?
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
QFT.
Bodies like the NDRC frequently back the wrong horse. The cream of Irish IT industry emigrates to greener pastures for a variety of reasons;
1) Salaries elsewhere like the US are far higher -- I could be earning double what I get here in the US (after currency conversion)
2) The standards of professionalism and skills are higher -- I'm currently working for an Irish software company; There is a severe technical deficit and a propensity towards small world aspirations i.e. "We'll never be big enough to compete with company X, so why bother trying?"
3) The standard of third level education is better -- CS degrees here are a joke.
What bollocks. Ryanair is one of the better known success stories, but it is far from alone. The problem with Ireland is there's no money and a bizarre distaste in the public sector for local entrepreneurs (ie the self employed can't claim any social support, making starting your own business a seriously risky proposal and not something anyone with dependents should consider), not a lack of local talent.
There is the added expense of leprechaun filters in the clean room.
Ireland doesn't have particularly low tax on rich people. We have a low corporate tax, but that isn't the same thing.
8 of their 11 current fabs are in the USA, one is in Ireland, one is in Israel, one is in China. The Chinese plant doesn't do CPUs, as far as I know, as it is an older process. They do some packaging in Asia, in Singapore if I remember correctly, but you don't tend to see those chips in the US and EU as they have closer packaging plants (in the US you mostly see products from the US packaging plant and their Costa Rica plant).
AMD also isn't Asia focused for CPUs. They have them manufactured at Global Foundries which has a fab in the US, Germany, and Singapore.
Discrete GPUs are all fabbed in Asia these days, specifically in Taiwan by TSMC. Now that may change as TSMC has been badly fucking up they may switch to someone else but for now, all TSMC.
In terms of other stuff, like mobile processors, it can vary highly. For example Samsung is a big player in that market and you might expect Korea to be where they fab. While that's true for flash, for processors it is most in Texas. If you have a phone with a 32nm Samsung processor, Texas ware probably where it was made.
Ireland's tax rate on trading income is 12.5% the average effective corporate tax rate in the US is 27%. However, that 12.5% pays for universal health care for the workers (paying 80% of health care costs). It is far more likely that lower wages AND benefit costs are the deciding factor instead of taxes. Businesses will gladly pay more in taxes if it means they can get rid of a huge cost they have little control over (benefits account for as much as 40% of one's wages and health care is the largest portion of that).
There could be other reasons to avoid that. Granted, I don't think the idea is that prevalent in the technology sector, but in a lot of various areas there's the attitude that anything made in SE Asia (with the exception of Japan) is junk. Doesn't really matter if it actually IS junk or not, but that's the perception.
Take pocket-knives for example. Buck Knives moved some of their lower end production to China a few years back, and despite the Chinese made products actually being pretty decent quality, the community opinion of them ranks a Chinese-made Buck about on the level of a counterfeit.
Western European countries generally don't suffer that bias. They're still known as a location of "craftsman". Like I said I don't think its as much of an issue with electronics, but I certainly do know people who absolutely won't buy something if it says "Made in " China, Taiwan, Vietnam, etc. As I mentioned earlier about the only country around there that's managed to shake that image is Japan, who certainly is known for producing quality stuff.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
And it took Japan many years to share that image. Both Japanese cars and electronics were considered as cheap crap when they started.
All countries which enter a new industry globally compete first on price. Then they improve quality.
Once that plant is in operation, its not going anywhere. It will represent a huge chunk of Intel's assets, and you dont just decide one day youre going to pick up your fab and relocate it to india. These sites cost billions of dollars and take years to build.