NXP Semiconductors NV is considering Austin, Texas, for a $2.6 billion expansion that would create hundreds of jobs.

Representatives for the Dutch chipmaker held a meeting with Austin Independent School District board members Tuesday about potential tax breaks in exchange for expanding two facilities in the metro and adding 800 high-paying jobs. The new employees would earn average salaries of more than $100,000, according to Jason Stanford, a district spokesman.

NXP is also looking at other cities as potential sites, according to company spokesperson Jacey Zuniga. The chipmaker expects to make a final?decision in the fourth quarter of this year and begin construction in 2024.

The Texas capital, already home to Silicon Laboratories Inc. and Cirrus Logic Inc., has become a growing hub for the semiconductor industry. Last year, Samsung Electronics Co. announced plans for a $17 billion plant about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from Austin.

Micron Technology Inc. has been scouting the area for a new multibillion-dollar chip plant; Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has a significant presence in the metro and German chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG has been studying a $700 million expansion of its facility in the region.

The school district will vote in two weeks on whether the chipmaker can move forward with an application for the tax breaks, known as a Chapter 313 agreement, according to Stanford.

NXP makes chips for cars, phones and industrial equipment. The company has four wafer fabrication facilities in the US, two of which are in Austin.

Chinese regulators have granted approval for Advanced Micro Devices Inc. to buy Xilinx Inc., clearing the way for one of the largest deals to emerge from the global semiconductor industry.

The State Administration for Market Regulation has cleared the deal with certain conditions, the antitrust watchdog said in a statement. It asked AMD not to discriminate against Chinese clients and to continue supplying Xilinx’s products to the country, after determining the deal could exclude or limit competition. The acquisition had already won the blessing of regulators in the U.S., Europe, and U.K., among other jurisdictions.

Xilinx’s shares gained more than 6% in pre-market trading in New York, while AMD rose slightly. The U.S. chipmaker, which competes with Intel Corp. and Nvidia Corp. in computer and graphics processors, unveiled the deal in 2020. Chief Executive Officer Lisa Su’s signature deal was intended at the time to help AMD re-double efforts to challenge Intel for the lead in chips.

Buying Xilinx, a maker of programmable silicon, will take AMD into areas such as automotive and communications networking, while bolstering its offerings in the lucrative market for cloud data center components.

AMD has made this strategic transaction with an aim to strengthen the company's technology portfolio and expand its rapidly growing data center business amid strong competition.

Volkswagen AG said it delivered a year early on a target to cut overhead costs by 10% as the carmaker seeks to become more nimble in the shift to electric cars.

At the same time, a lack of automotive semiconductors has plagued the industry for most of the year and also ate into quarterly results of key rivals Stellantis and General Motors.

As a result of the shortage, Volkswagen, which has outlined an ambitious plan to become the world leader in electric vehicle (EV) sales, now expects deliveries in 2022 to be only in line with the previous year, having previously forecast a rise.

"These results underscore once again the need for further productivity improvements and fixed cost reductions in the volume group in order to remain competitive," Chief Executive Herbert Diess told reporters.

Revenues at Europe's largest carmaker are now expected to be considerably higher in 2022. Volkswagen had previously expected a significant increase from the 223 billion euros achieved last year, wording that had indicated stronger growth.

The goal, excluding spending for research and development as well as capital expenditure, was devised last year and initially set for 2023, Europe’s biggest carmaker said Tuesday. The savings will contribute 4 billion euros ($4.4 billion) in cost relief compared to 2019.

“The Volkswagen Group enhanced its overall robustness in 2021 and achieved solid results and cash flows despite strong headwinds from the semiconductor shortage,” Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz said in a statement. “These achievements give us confidence that we are able to robustly finance our transformation.”

Intel Corp. pledged to invest 17 billion euros ($18.7 billion) to build a cutting-edge semiconductor production site in Germany, marking the beginning of Europe’s ambitious attempt to lure global chipmakers back to the region.

The Santa Clara, California-based company has committed to spend 33 billion euros in a number of European countries, part of a plan to devote 80 billion euros to the region over the next decade. France will become home to a new chip research center, and the company will expand its existing production site in Ireland. Intel also announced it is negotiating with Italy about opening a new packaging site.

The announcement is part of Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger’s bid to win back market share by developing the latest technology. The plant in Magdeburg, Germany will attempt to produce chips smaller than 2 nanometers, something the company has yet to achieve.

Gelsinger’s focus on Europe comes at a time when significant subsidies are being rolled out by the European Union, which is keen to claw back some of its share of the chip market after collapses in recent decades. During the 1990s, the EU accounted for nearly 20% of the world’s silicon wafer production, according to figures cited by Brussels. Now it has fallen to about 10%.

The EU has now set itself the ambitious goal of making 20% of the world’s chip supply by 2030 -- quadrupling its production. The EU announced plans last month to free up public funding for the production of chips considered “first of a kind” in Europe, and has recently revealed an investment plan of?45 billion euros in public and private money to fund the project.

Intel did not specify how much money it is receiving from EU governments to expand into their countries.

The EU’s Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said he welcomed Intel’s announcement, calling it a “true European project” that creates thousands of jobs and “confirms that Europe is an attractive place to invest in.”

“Europe will be a key player across the entire chips value chain, including in the fast-moving market of cutting-edge technologies below 2nm chips produced in Europe,” Breton said in a statement.

Gelsinger is one of a number of industry executives who’re planning for the $550-billion industry to double over the next decade, and Intel has already committed to increase spending on new factories at an existing site in Arizona and new location in Ohio. He’s called on governments to recognize the security risks of the concentration of production in Asia.

His vision for Intel in the future is of a company that manufacturers semiconductors for other companies, even rivals, and that does it with the best production technology. By committing to Europe and Germany, Intel can speed up the acquisition of new customers. Worldwide shortages have particularly hurt the auto industry which is increasingly reliant on the electronic components, and local plants and guaranteed supply could win him a slice of that growing market.

“Today 80% of chips are produced in Asia,” said Gelsinger. “Our pan European investment addresses the global need for a more balanced and resilient supply chain. We are planning to