BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Germany won the EU's blessing Wednesday to give a euro262 million (US$361 million) subsidy to U.S. semiconductor maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. to help expand its plant in the eastern German city of Dresden.
The government grant did not break EU rules that prevent subsidies favoring one company over another and would help create jobs in a disadvantaged region, the European Commission said.
AMD's plan to expand the factory it opened in 2005 will cost euro2.2 billion (US$3.03 billion) overall. The plant makes 64-bit processors and will be extended to make 300-millimeter wafer production facilities, as well as adding a new clean-room facility for the final stages of manufacturing.
AMD, which makes microprocessors, flash memory devices for the computer, communications and consumer electronics industries, already employs several thousand people in Dresden. It is based in Sunnyvale, California.
The U.S. firm's investments have underlined Dresden's status as a relatively prosperous part of the former communist East Germany, which in general remains economically depressed.
Rival chipmaker Intel Corp. did not win EU permission in 2005 for Ireland to give it euro170 million (US$210 million) to build a new plant west of Dublin.
Previously, the Santa Clara, California-based company had received about euro220 million (US$275 million) in Irish state aid for the plant.
