On 15 March 2010 the German authorities notified their intention to provide regional investment aid in favour of GLOBALFOUNDRIES Group for diversifying the output of existing establishments in Dresden into new, additional products.
GLOBALFOUNDRIES Inc. is a joint venture between AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) Inc. and ATIC (Advanced Technology Investment LLC) with headquarters in the USA. GLOBALFOUNDRIES was created in March 2009 and its objective is to provide foundry-services to the semiconductor industry.
The German authorities intend to grant a nominal aid amount of EUR 83, 5 million for the Fab Booster Investment and EUR 136, 8 million for the Fab 1 Annex investment.
The Commission gave the following assessment:
"The financial support from the German authorities will be given for an investment resulting in the production of wafers for the semiconductor industry. Since the products concerned are subject to trade between Member States, the support given is likely to affect trade between Member States. The favoring of GLOBALFOUNDRIES and its production by the German authorities means that competition is distorted or threatened to be distorted." (par. 40-41 of the letter from EC to Germany - Brussels, 13.7.2011 K (2011) 4928 final).
A state measure in the GTA database is assessed solely in terms of the extent to which its implementation affects the extent of discrimination against foreign commercial interests. On this metric, the state aid proposed here is discriminatory.