Dresden has been a semimanufactoring hub in Eastern Germany for quite some time.

I believe this started in GDR times and continued (at massively reduced capacity) after the reunification.

Intel, AMD, Infineon and others operate (or plan to build) factories in Dresend (or saxony in general) and its reasonable to assume that experienced workers and local suppliers make the area a preffered location.

Given Eastern Germanys weak economic situtation these are very welcome investments.

Edit: see bellow for corrections

Intel will settle in Magdeburg. The "AMD" Fab in Dresden belongs to GlobalFoundries (AMD sold its last GlobalFoundries shares in 2012).

Thank you for correcting me :)

> Curious why they've chosen Dresden though.

The region is known for its semiconductor industry, at least in Germany. Quote from Wikipedia about Dresden:

> Silicon Saxony Saxony's semiconductor industry was built up in 1969. Major enterprises today include AMD's semiconductor fabrication spin-off GlobalFoundries, Infineon Technologies, ZMDI and Toppan Photomasks. Their factories attract many suppliers of material and cleanroom technology enterprises to Dresden.

So it just makes sense to build fabs in Dresden because there is already a lot of know-how there.

I wonder how much the decision was influenced by the general lack of opportunity in the east, and the rising alt-right movement as a consequence. I really want eastern Germany to have a better economy.

Had no idea about it. Thank you for the valuable information!

5 Billion Euros of public money out of a total of 10 Billion invested. So it is more like "the German state builds a fab, with TSMC and others also investing a little".

>The planned joint venture will be 70% owned by TSMC, with Bosch, Infineon, and NXP each holding 10% equity stake, subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions.

I wonder what them "providing" 5 billions as news reports put it actually means. Is this a loan, a gift, or some other type of deal?

Gift. Here is how it worked in Wales: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hijJ_4H08RM

You have to subtract 10% or so in kickbacks that will later flow back to the politicians handing out the money

> Anybody knows how much the government is willing to invest? Missing some tangible figures.

5B, according to German news: https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/tsmc-dresden-100.html

> Curious why they've chosen Dresden though.

Because many foundries are located there like GlobalFoundries and Bosch

Eindhoven (NL) would have been obvious as well (NXP, ASML, Infineon, Philips)

Germany is a big player (politically and financially) in the EU and the Eurozone and it's benefitial to have them on your side.

(Also such a large economy can offer better (aka larger) subsidies if they want to)

Eindhoven is also still growing: https://siliconcanals.com/news/startups/dutch-smart-photonic... Much smaller though!

It's probably good for the EU in general to have multiple silicon hubs.

Germany wouldn't have subsidised that one though - this was German money.

Eindhoven also has a recent influx of PhDs from Philips looking for a new place to work...

although imo Eindhoven isn't exactly the most... attractive place to live for many people. Dresden on the other hand seems like it's somewhat en vogue

Makes sense. Thank you!

Dresden has a really good university when it comes to computer engineering, too. Plus it realtively cheap compared to other regions in Germany (like Munich)

Dresden is a huge chip hub with lots of talent

Maybe because East Germany is cheaper?

Other companies with offices there are AWS' EC2 (Kernel dev, Gravitons, etc), and Xilinx.

> If Tesla could build a car factory here from scratch,

Did Tesla ever finish that German factory? Last time i read about it no one wanted to work there...

I live nearby, it is finished and it is producing Teslas.