The American chip manufacturer Intel apparently wants to build its multi-billion dollar European factory complex just outside of Magdeburg.

The group did not want to "comment on" corresponding "rumors" on Thursday, but the plans were confirmed to the FAZ by several high-ranking sources.

Accordingly, it is about the construction of a so-called megafab, which consists of several semiconductor plants.

These have an investment volume of around 10 billion euros each and should create more than 20,000 jobs all in all.

Reinhard Bingener

Political correspondent for Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Bremen based in Hanover.

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Stephen Finsterbusch

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Roland Lindner

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The settlement would be the largest single investment in the recent history of the Federal Republic.

The local university and research landscape, the access to thousands of qualified workers who can be trained quickly and the good transport connections were particularly important for the location decision.

The factories are said to be right next to the A14 Autobahn, where Amazon recently set up one of its central warehouses.

Heading south is Leipzig, the airport there, and further to Dresden's Silicon Saxony, two hours away, with the chip factories of Infineon, Bosch and Globalfoundries, Europe's largest semiconductor location to date.

To the north you soon meet the large west-east axis Autobahn 2, which goes to Berlin.

Convincing application

Another important criterion was the availability of large, relatively flat areas, which are abundant in the Börde.

However, there are already indications that there could be resistance from environmentalists, similar to the Tesla plant in Grünheide, because areas the size of around 500 football pitches are likely to be sealed for the planned plant.

As a further advantage of Magdeburg's location, the local colleges, especially the university with its strong technical orientation, are mentioned by those familiar with it.

The economic researcher and former Saxony-Anhalt finance minister Karl-Heinz Paqué assumes that the settlement of Intel will strengthen the technical research power of the university.

When Intel settled just outside of Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt was in competition with a handful of locations throughout Europe.

The state government, headed by Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff (CDU), has reportedly met Intel boss Pat Gelsinger several times and has been working in strict confidentiality for months to win the international location competition.

The outgoing Mayor of Magdeburg, Lutz Trümper (SPD), and the state's "Chief Settler", Jürgen Ude, non-party State Secretary in the State Ministry of Economics, are also considered important people in the courtship for Intel.

The multi-billion dollar settlement of the so-called mega-fab is to be supported by substantial state aid.

Details are not yet circulating.

However, the EU as well as the federal government, the state and the city of Magdeburg should contribute to this.

Several people familiar with the processes said that Magdeburg submitted a convincing application to Intel last fall via the federal location marketing company Germany Trade and Invest.

Apparently that is now paying off.

The announcement of the decision by the American group is planned for the coming days, but could be postponed due to current developments in Eastern Europe.

European Intel group

Behind the scenes in the industry, it was said that the potential French location near Grenoble was out of the running due to geological concerns, as was the possible Bavarian location in Penzing, where the local council had reservations about such a large project.

Nevertheless, Intel plans to invest in France and Italy in addition to Magdeburg, namely in the capital and labor-intensive preparatory and post-processing steps of the actual chip production.