Israel on Sunday announced that Intel is set to make the largest ever investment in the country with a $25 billion (90 billion NIS) semiconductor chip manufacturing plant, an economic move Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called “huge and unprecedented.” Commenting on the agreement reached in principle between Israel and Intel, Netanyahu said the facility will use the most “advanced technology in the world.”
“This is an expression of great confidence in the Israeli economy and exactly reflects the strength of the free economy that we have built here, and the technological economy that we are developing here,” said Netanyahu in comments published by Israel.
The new facility adds to the existing five different centers already in Israel, which the Intel website notes employ over 12,000 people. In The Jerusalem Post report on the latest facility—to be built in the city of Kiryat Gat by 2027—Intel has agreed to increase their tax rate to Israel from 5% to 7.5%. The plan also calls for employees in the new facility to be paid above industry average. In return, Intel will receive an investment grant from Israel.
Netanyahu isn’t the only Israeli official excited about the new facility. “The investment of unprecedented magnitudes will affect the growth of the Israeli economy, promote high-quality employment with productivity and high wages in the peripheral settlements and put Israel at the forefront of technology,” Israeli Finance Mininster Betzalel Smotrich said in a post to Twitter, as translated by Google.
Intel, one the world’s leading semiconductor chip manufacturers, has been in Israel since 1974. According to Intel’s Corporate Responsibility Report on their Hebrew website, as translated by Google, Intel in Israel set a record in 2022 with $8.7 billion in exports—or 1.75% of Israel’s entire national economic output as measured by gross domestic product (GDP). In addition to the facilities located in Israel, Intel has also purchased multiple Israeli companies over the years, including the autonomous driver technology company Mobileye in 2017.
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, June 18, 2023)