The demand for chips only grows day by day as more individuals and businesses utilize devices like computers. Having said this, chipmaking companies like Intel must catch up to this growing demand by building chipmaking plants to produce these products. And it does not fail in this aspect.
Intel is about to build a new chipmaking complex in Magdeburg, a city in Germany. However, when it comes to massive projects like this, companies often need financial support from the government. But apparently, after the German government recently refused Intel’s request for additional subsidy for this undertaking, saying there is “no more money” in the budget, there is a possibility that this project may be stalled. Read on for the details of this news.
‘No more money’
Germany’s government, specifically the German finance minister Christian Lindner has refused the demand of Intel for additional subsidy for the company’s $18-billion chipmaking facility, news from Financial Times said yesterday.
Lindner told Financial Times, “There is no more money available in the budget. We are trying to consolidate the budget right now, not expand it.”
Last year, Intel announced that it is building a new chipmaking complex in Magdeburg, located in central Germany, as part of an $88 billion investment drive across Europe. This project would include enhancing a packaging and assembly site in Italy, and a factory in Ireland, as well as constructing a design and research facility in France.
But, it may also be a fault of Intel, as it has demanded more from its initial request. According to the news report, Intel was due to receive around $7 billion from the government for its chipmaking plant in Germany. However, because of higher costs of energy and construction, Intel is now reportedly demanding around almost $11 billion.
Intel has not yet released a statement as of press time.
More Intel news: Intel helping detect breast cancer with more accuracy
Meanwhile, in other Intel news, technologies from the company are helping doctors in India detect the early signs of breast cancer more accurately. Early detection is vital to prevent the disease from worsening.
Dr. Madhu Nair and Dr. Asha Das, researchers from India’s Artificial Intelligence & Computer Vision Lab at Cochin University of Science and Technology, have been using artificial intelligence (AI) to detect breast cancer cells in scanned images from the tissue samples of patients.
However, the two are encountering problems, particularly in teaching the AI to recognize these cancer cells accurately. Until Intel stepped forward.
Dr. Das and Dr. Nair recently partnered with Intel to use the company’s technologies, particularly the Xeon Scalable processors and Optimization for TensorFlow, to accomplish what they need to achieve.
With these technologies from Intel, they have a CPU-based solution capable of detecting the early signs of breast cancer on medical images.
“[I am] extremely happy that [Intel] immediately understood the importance of this work,” Dr. Nair said.
