US government plans to finance Intel with $8.5 billion directly

The US government intends to provide Intel, the chipmaker, with $8.5 billion in direct financing.

According to the Financial Times, the discussions between the two parties have reached an advanced stage, but there is no guarantee that they will be completed before the end of this year.

The completion of the agreement on the support package is considered a vote of confidence by the US government in the company, after President Joe Biden decided in March to provide Intel with about $20 billion in grants and loans to boost its domestic production of semiconductors.

The initial agreement included grants worth $8.5 billion, and up to $11 billion in loans to the company in Arizona, where some of the funding will be used to build two new factories and upgrade an existing one.