For months, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) has been in negotiations with Italy to construct a fab in the nation as a part of its plan to take a position $77.5B in Europe over the subsequent decade.

On Friday, Intel (INTC) CEO Pat Gelsinger could have tweaked that plan as he informed an Italian newspaper the nation is “nonetheless in the recreation” for the upcoming fab, but so are others.

“Italy remains to be in the recreation, but so are other candidate countries,” Gelsinger mentioned in a translated interview with Il Corriere della Sera. “We are making an attempt to see the place. We’ll determine inside the yr.”

Intel (INTC) shares had been fractionally decrease in early Friday commerce.

Gelsinger additionally confirmed to the information outlet that he had spoken with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He additionally spoke with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar the information outlet added and should have spoken to the leaders of Spain and Poland, Pedro Sanchez and Andrzej Duda, countries that are additionally in the operating for the fab.

Last month, Meloni mentioned she would meet with Intel (INTC) to coordinate the semiconductor large’s funding in the nation because it appears to be like to increase its world presence.

“In the coming days I’ll search to schedule a gathering, to ask Intel what we are able to do to facilitate their funding in Italy, which I feel is very strategic,” Meloni mentioned at the time.

In August, it was reported that Italy was near signing a deal that may very well be value $5B initially with the Italian authorities to construct a packaging and meeting plant in the nation.

At the time, the authorities of former Prime Minister Mario Draghi hoped to have an settlement by the finish of August, but that didn’t occur.

One month later, it was reported that Intel (INTC) had picked the city of Vigasio in the Italian area Veneto, roughly 70 miles west of Venice, for its new multi-billion greenback chip manufacturing facility in the European nation.

Vigasio was reportedly picked as it’s near Germany, the place Intel (INTC) is slated to construct two factories. Piedmont, Lombardy, Apulia and Sicily had been additionally thought-about as potential locales for the plant.

The new manufacturing facility is anticipated to start out producing chips between 2025 and 2027 and is slated to be a complicated semiconductor packaging and meeting plant.

Intel (INTC) was not too long ago listed as certainly one of funding agency UBS’s prime semiconductor shares for 2023.