Intel remains confident in the Chinese economy and is strongly committed to operating in the country. However, the Silicon Valley-based semiconductor chipmaker has followed many US companies by shifting the manufacturing and assembly of some of its products to Vietnam.

Intel’s former CEO, Bob Swan, also wrote to then-President-Elect Joe Biden in November 2020, outlining the necessity of a “national manufacturing strategy” to “ensure American companies compete on a level playing field” in response to the likely scenario of China dominating the semiconductor chip production industry in the next decade.

The company’s CEO Pat Gelsinger reinforced this message in March 2021, when he announced a $20 billion (£14.4bn) plan to build two new chip manufacturing facilities in Arizona. In September of that same year, Intel announced it would be investing up to $95 billion (£68.2bn) in the production of chips in Europe, as it sought to boost production capacity during the global semiconductor shortage.

Big multinational companies moving out of China