On April 1, 2026 local time, Intel Corporation and Apollo Global Management announced a definitive agreement under which Intel will repurchase the remaining 49% equity stake it does not own in the joint venture related to its Intel Fab 34 wafer fabrication facility in Ireland, for a total consideration of $14.2 billion.
The agreement reflects Intel’s continued strong business momentum, supported by the growing importance of CPUs in the artificial intelligence era, a significantly strengthened balance sheet, and Intel’s solid partnership with Apollo Global Management.
In 2024, funds managed by Apollo and its affiliated companies led a consortium to acquire a 49% stake in the Fab 34-related joint venture for $11.2 billion, providing Intel with equity-like capital while maintaining the robustness of its balance sheet. The transaction significantly enhanced Intel’s financial flexibility, allowing the company to unlock and reallocate capital to advance its strategic priorities, including accelerating the ramp-up of Intel 4 and Intel 3 — Europe’s most advanced process technologies — as well as Intel 18A, currently the most advanced process node in the United States.
David Zinsner, Chief Financial Officer of Intel, stated: “We appreciate Apollo’s continued support on our journey to build world-class wafer manufacturing and advanced packaging fabs, a journey built on trust, alignment, and execution. The agreement we reached in 2024 was appropriate at the time, providing Intel with critical flexibility to accelerate key projects. Today, we have a stronger balance sheet, greater financial discipline, and a more refined business strategy. We thank Apollo for its ongoing partnership in helping us achieve this goal and allowing us to recapitalize for our long-term strategy.”
“Our partnership with Intel began at a pivotal stage in the execution of its advanced manufacturing roadmap, where our long-term strategic capital played an important role in accelerating the production of next-generation chip technologies,” said Jamshid Ehsani, Partner at Apollo. “As a long-term, solution-oriented capital partner, flexibility and alignment are at the heart of our relationships, and we are pleased to have facilitated this transaction to support Intel’s evolving strategic and operational priorities. This mutually beneficial transaction fully embodies our operating philosophy: client-centricity and a focus on long-term partnerships. We are proud to support Intel’s evolving strategy and operational priorities and look forward to exploring additional opportunities for collaboration in the future.”
The funding for the repurchase of the 49% stake in the joint venture is expected to come from existing cash on hand and approximately $6.5 billion in proceeds from new debt issuances. The transaction is projected to enhance Intel’s ongoing profitability and strengthen its credit profile for 2027 and beyond. Intel remains on track to repay maturing debt obligations in 2026 and 2027.
Ireland and the Fab 34 facility remain central to Intel’s global manufacturing footprint and current and future product roadmaps. Fab 34 is a high-volume semiconductor manufacturing site producing products using Intel’s 4th and 3rd generation process technologies, including Intel Core Ultra and Intel Xeon 6 processors. Intel continues to make significant capital investments in its Irish campus to expand capacity, improve execution, and serve customers building next-generation artificial intelligence systems.
(Reprinted from https://news.eccn.com/）