U.S. tech giant Intel has offered to help but it reportedly wants 8 billion euros in public subsidies toward building a semiconductor factory in Europe.
my immediate reaction is "then it should be a public foundry, if payed for by the public"... but maybe im missing some detail/nuance...
It sounds to me like Intel is willing to set up a fab in Europe, and they've stated their asking price. Why does this immediately result in people saying that it should be a public foundry just because it would ultimately be paid for by the public?
Sports arenas built with public money are a scam, and so is the idea of having taxpayers subsidize the construction of for-profit privately-owned chip fabs.
If the locality chooses to pay with public funds, that's their decision to make. But it doesn't immediately erase the history and override the terms of the exchange that was made.