Compromise in the budget dispute: Ampel is sticking to subsidies for chip factories in East Germany

Despite the budget crisis, the traffic light continues to provide billions in subsidies for industrial projects East Germany including the chip factories of Intel near Magdeburg and TSMC near Dresden. This was confirmed by the Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics, Michael Kellner, to the dpa news agency.

Previously, Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) and Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) had reached an agreement Budget dispute announced.

The traffic light agreement is good for East Germany, Kellner now told the dpa. “The investments for the transformation projects are secured. We are using these funds to secure our future economic strength. Our entire country benefits from this, people and medium-sized businesses alike.” The hope is that by producing computer chips in Europe instead of importing them from Asia as is currently the case Federal Government more strategic independence.

The US manufacturer Intel is planning to do so Magdeburg the construction of a new chip factory, which is expected to cost around 30 billion euros. The state is contributing around ten billion euros of this. The Taiwanese company TSMC wants to build a semiconductor factory in Dresden. Investments in the building amount to more than ten billion euros, around half of which is covered by the federal government.

In both cases, thousands of jobs are expected to be created. At the same time, the federal government hopes to gain more strategic independence if computer chips are manufactured in Europe instead of importing them from Asia.