The US has a bag of money ready for Intel, but it comes with some conditions. For example, the chip giant may not sell its foundry business, and U.S. R&D investments are mandatory.
The $7.9 billion U.S. payout to Intel comes with a “but. Intel is getting the pennies under the Chips Act. With this, the US wants to support chip production on its own soil. To take advantage of the funds, however, Intel must commit not to sell its factories, according to Reuters. That is not such an obvious requirement, since Intel already wants to make Intel Foundry an independent subsidiary.
Majority
The subsidies make a sale impossible, but a spin-off not provided Intel retains 50.1 percent of the new entity’s shares. Moreover, in such a case, Intel must continue to purchase wafers on a large scale from the factory division. If Intel Foundry becomes publicly traded, no third party may acquire more than 35 percent of the shares unless Intel remains the largest shareholder.
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Intel not allowed to sell factories by US
Whatever Intel does with the factories, the U.S. wants to make sure that the American company retains control. That way, subsidies for chip production are guaranteed to go to an American company in the long run.