Reuters reports:
Israel's finance and economy ministries on Monday approved a plan by Intel Corp to invest $6 billion in the upgrade of its chip manufacturing plant, in what would be the largest single investment by a foreign company in the country.
Intel will receive a government grant of $300 million over five years and will be eligible to pay a corporate tax rate of only 5 percent for a 10-year period, the ministries said.
[...]
"Intel's investment is a strategic asset for Israel's industry," Finance Minister Yair Lapid said in a statement. "This is the biggest investment by a foreign company ever in Israel and is further proof that Israel is at the forefront of technology and innovation."
The article also notes that Intel's plans include hiring an extra 1,000 workers at the plant by 2023, which has around 2,500 employees at present. Intel has a workforce just shy of 10,000 in the country. Over the last 40 years Intel has invested over $10bn in Israel and has received $1.5bn in grants from the government.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by AnonTechie on Tuesday September 23 2014, @01:12PM
If companies can get commercial advantage, they will invest. If they get subsidies, they will invest.
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MrGuy on Tuesday September 23 2014, @05:53PM
I would also add "where they can get access to resources at a discount over elsewhere, they will invest." One of the key resources companies are looking to get at a discount these days is talent. Really good, smart people who we can get because there's less competition for them.
This isn't just the "race to the bottom" that the outsourcing boom of the '90's brought on ("where can I buy 10,000 hours of Java coding at the cheapest price?") Most companies have learned (or at worst are starting to learn) that there are variables to consider other than just cost. What many companies opening offices/development centers overseas these days appear to be more focused on (in my experience) is getting access to great talent. i.e. we're not in India just because wages are lower - we're in India because really great technologists are hard to come by, and a country of 1,000,000,000 people has a fair share of them.
Companies go where they can get great people, and retain great people. Companies are more worried than ever about retaining their offshore talent than they have before - if we hire someone in India, it's not on a disposable 6-month contract anymore. We're investing more in teaching them, building them up, and maximizing their long term value.
The reason you hear about more US companies going to Brazil and Argentina these days aren't because those countries are cheaper (they're not). They're more where the untapped talent is at (though that of course is changing now).
I think the move to Israel is more along these lines - there's not a ton of local competition, and there are a lot of skilled people. Let's grab all we can before someone else snaps them up.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 23 2014, @02:04PM
US aid to Israel has been about $3bln a year [wikipedia.org] in recent years, and has been going on since the 1940s.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 23 2014, @07:07PM
Yeah, this is the axis of evil.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by middlemen on Tuesday September 23 2014, @04:03PM
Where is the outrage that is normal for the Soylenters and ex-Slashdotters against outsourcing ? Oh! It's Israel not India/China. It is our buddy. Jesus was there.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by richtopia on Tuesday September 23 2014, @05:25PM
I've always gotten a much more libertarian feeling from this website, with the mindset that if someone else can do it cheaper, then more power to them.
Personally, my issue with outsourcing is the safety/environmental costs that are ignored by China and friends. Hence in my book if the work can be outsourced on the same playing field as the USA, good for them.
(Score: 1) by gawdonblue on Tuesday September 23 2014, @09:56PM
There won't be any environmental issues. Only going to pollute one little stream that supplies Gaza with its drinking water. Who's going to complain?
(Score: 1) by art guerrilla on Tuesday September 23 2014, @11:05PM
wait a sec, as a practicing atheist (lapsed agnostic ?), i still believe that i am -in fact- my brother's keeper...
but it appears you start out saying i am not, then you say i am, then you say i'm not...
i am left confused by your moral exemplar...
we have worshipped mammon for far too long, to even postulate other 'values' being equal or -*gasp*- superior to profit and unrestrained kapitalist imperialism... we can not even consider ANY action other than "PROFIT NOW!"
(and the unstated premise is -of course- "people be damned"...)