Intel sells its largest centre in Russia, condemning the war

Intel Corporation has sold its office in Nizhny Novgorod, which was the largest in Russia, according to rosmedia, citing the reports of one of the company's legal entities in Russia.

The deal was completed in January this year, and the company had been looking for a buyer for the regional office for a long time. The list of assets sold includes a building and land plots. The name of the buyer is not disclosed in the reports.

Intel owned an RnD office in Nizhny Novgorod, which served as a hub for research and development in Russia. It had laboratories, cross-platform software development and AI solutions departments. Due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the corporation suspended its operations on Russian territory.

"Intel, along with the entire global community, condemns Russia's war against Ukraine and calls for a speedy restoration of peace. We support everyone affected by this war – especially the people of Ukraine and neighbouring countries, as well as all those who have family, friends and loved ones in the region," the company said in a statement.

The corporation also said that it would not abandon its obligations to the employees of the Russian unit and would provide them with assistance.

At the end of last year, two people worked at Russian Intel, which unites two legal entities. Before the invasion, the corporation employed 1,200 people.

In 2023, the loss of Intel's two Russian legal entities totalled RUB 192 million and RUB 21 million with zero revenue. In 2022, the total loss exceeded RUB 3 billion.

At the end of February 2022, the United States imposed restrictions on exports to Russia of high-tech products in demand in the defence, aerospace and other strategic industries.

However, in January of this year, Bloomberg reported, citing classified data from the Russian customs service, that in the first 9 months of 2023, Russia imported advanced microprocessors from leading American and European manufacturers worth more than $1 billion.

Thus, more than half of the total volume of semiconductors and integrated circuits imported into Russia during this period was accounted for by Western companies, including the American Intel Corp, Advanced Micro Devices and Analog Devices Inc. and the European Infineon Technologies AG, STMicroelectronics NV and NXP Semiconductors NV.

Background. Meanwhile, it has become known that Intel plans to invest $100 billion in chip manufacturing in the US and regain global leadership in the industry. The plan is to build "the world's largest production site for AI chips".