Intel, the beleaguered American semiconductor maker, received an extra €2.5 million from IDA Ireland this year as part of a big aid package for companies whose energy bills spiked after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It brings to €32.5 million the amount the IDA has given Intel over the last year, according to figures contained in a European Commission state aid database.
The funding was provided as part of a €100 million scheme introduced by the Irish Government last year and cleared by the European Commission in March 2023 to support companies involved in the manufacturing of microelectronics.
As part of the scheme, funds could be applied for by companies from Enterprise Ireland, Údarás na Gaeltachta, the Local Enterprise Offices and IDA Ireland.
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Individual recipients of support were limited to a maximum total of €50 million, according to the details of the scheme, which ended in December 2023.
The Irish Times contacted Intel in relation to the matter but the company declined to say whether it had received more than the €32.5 million declared in the European Commission database.
It is not the only funding the Irish taxpayer has provided for Intel in recent years. The company was also granted hundreds of millions of euro worth of refundable tax credits by the Irish Government last year as part of its expansion of its enormous manufacturing facility in Leixlip.
Intel’s most recent annual report shows it recognised a total of $645 million (€591 million) worth of grants and refundable tax credits from countries outside the United States, the majority of which “related to the expansion of silicon wafer manufacturing facilities in Ireland”.
The giant chipmaker is in the process of laying off more than 15,000 employees worldwide as part of a cost-cutting plan, through which it aims to save $10 billion in 2025.
[ Irish staff in the dark as Intel starts global cutsOpens in new window ]
As reported by The Irish Times, Irish-based workers are understood to be waiting for further detail on the early retirement and voluntary redundancy scheme, which could see hundreds of people leave the company. However, it could be several weeks before the full scale of departures from the company’s Irish operations is known.
Intel operates an enormous manufacturing facility in Leixlip, Co Kildare, and employs more than 5,000 people in Ireland.
Earlier this year it announced it had sold a 49 per cent stake in a joint venture connected to the Leixlip facility to Apollo Global Management, a US private-equity firm, for $11 billion. The company had just finished construction of the Fab 34 facility at a cost of €17 billion.
Meanwhile, it emerged this week the company has been sued by shareholders who claim the Silicon Valley chipmaker fraudulently concealed problems that led it to post weak results, slash jobs and suspend its dividend, and caused its market value to sink more than $32 billion in a single day.
The proposed class action against Intel, chief executive Patrick Gelsinger and chief financial officer David Zinsner, was filed in San Francisco federal court.
[ How Intel fell from dominant chipmaker to struggling also-ranOpens in new window ]
Shareholders said they were blindsided when Intel revealed on August 1st that its so-called foundry business for making chips on contract for outsiders was, in their words, “floundering,” costing billions of dollars extra even as revenue declined.
They said the Santa Clara, California-based company’s materially false or misleading statements regarding the business and its manufacturing capabilities inflated its stock price from January 25th to August 1st.
Intel had no immediate comment. The lawsuit came after Intel said last Thursday it would suspend its dividend starting in the fourth quarter as part of its restructuring. The company also posted a $1.61 billion second-quarter net loss as revenue fell 1 per cent to $12.83 billion. – Additional reporting: Reuters
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