Intel is paying $14.2 billion to Apollo to buy back a 49% stake in a joint venture that has to do with its Fab 34 facility in Ireland.
The chipmaker made a deal with Apollo to buy back the part of the joint venture that Intel doesn’t own.
In 2024, Apollo-managed funds and affiliates led a $11.2B investment to buy a 49% stake in a joint venture related to Fab 34 facility in Ireland. This gave Intel equity-like capital while keeping its balance sheet strong. Intel said that the deal gave it a lot of financial freedom and let it free up and use money to move forward with its strategic goals. These include speeding up the construction of Intel 4 and Intel 3, the most advanced processes made in Europe, and Intel 18A, the most advanced process made and developed in the U.S. today.
CFO of Intel, David Zinsner, said, “Today, we have a stronger balance sheet, improved financial discipline, and an evolved business strategy. We appreciate Apollo’s continued collaboration to reach this outcome as we realign our capital structure with our long-term strategy.”
Intel said that the repurchase will likely be paid for with cash on hand and money from issuing new debt of about $6.5 billion.
The deal is expected to boost ongoing EPS and improve Intel’s credit profile in 2027 and beyond. Intel still thinks it will pay off its debts as they come due in 2026 and 2027, as per the company.
Fab 34 facility in Ireland is a semiconductor manufacturing plant that makes a lot of products using the Intel 4 and Intel 3 process technologies. These include Intel Core Ultra and Intel Xeon 6 processors.
Intel also said that it is still making substantial financial investments in its Ireland campus to increase its manufacturing capacity, improve its execution, and also meet the needs of customers who are building next-generation AI-enabled systems.