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Intel to invest additional $5 billion in Israeli ‎operations

The new investment is in addition to $4.5 billion already pledged by the multinational technology giant to its Israeli ventures in 2018.

By: Ariel Whitman/Israel Hayom

Multinational technology giant Intel announced on Tuesday that it plans to increase its investment in ‎Israel by an additional NIS 18 billion (‎‎$5 ‎billion‎). This follows the company’s announcement in February that it will invest $4.5 billion in its Israeli ‎ventures in 2018.‎

Intel Israel currently employs 11,000 people. ‎According to its website, Intel has bought ‎goods and services from local Israeli suppliers to ‎the tune of $10 billion in the past decade, with ‎exports amounting to $50 billion. The company’s ‎exports for 2017 totaled $3.6 billion.‎

The additional funds have been earmarked for the ‎company’s flagship facility in the southern Israeli city of ‎Kiryat Gat.‎

Intel is expected to receive a host of tax breaks ‎and other state incentives for its investment, ‎which the government is expected to approve in the ‎coming weeks. ‎

The company said that as part of its investment, it ‎will offer 250 new jobs, as well as undertake the ‎technological upgrade of the Kiryat Gat facility, which Intel officials say has a ‎‎“significant advantage” over the company’s other ‎sites worldwide.‎

An inter-ministerial team tasked with offering ‎incentives to foreign investors has recommended ‎giving Intel a grant of NIS 700 million ($195 million), contingent on its commitment to making a ‎strategic investment in its Israeli operations.‎

‎“I have just heard from Intel CEO [in Israel] Yaniv ‎Garty that after two years of intensive work, ‎Intel’s global management has accepted our proposal ‎to invest another NIS 18 billion and expand its ‎activity in Israel,” said Israel’s Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon.‎

‎“We were in competition with several countries for ‎Intel’s investment,” described Kahlon, “and I worked on getting them to ‎choose us for two years, with the vice president of ‎Intel International. In a week of Israeli successes, ‎we are again making strides in the global economy.”

Economy and Industry Minister Eli Cohen noted that “Intel’s choice to continue significantly investing ‎in Israel is an important expression of confidence ‎in the State of Israel and its economy. Intel’s ‎advanced activities in Israel support our policy of ‎increasing exports and creating quality jobs in ‎general and in the periphery in particular.”