Intel Corp (INTC)

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Nov. 22--ALBANY -- Advanced Micro Devices Inc. will likely have to wait until late January to transfer its $1.2 billion state incentive package to a joint venture with the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
The transfer is key to AMD's plans to build a $4.6 billion computer chip factory at Luther Forest Technology Campus in Malta.
AMD said in October that it was spinning off its manufacturing operations in a $7 billion deal with Abu Dhabi. The deal also includes construction of a factory at Luther Forest.
The spinoff, temporarily named The Foundry Co., will make chips for AMD and other customers.
The deal to create Foundry is contingent on a number of milestones, including shareholder approval, federal approval, and transfer of AMD's state incentive package, awarded in 2006, to the new company. AMD has said it would like to have all of the approvals in place early next year.
To transfer the package, the board of Empire State Development Corp., the state's economic development agency, must first adopt a document that outlines the incentives.
A vote to adopt that document was expected on Thursday but was pushed back to ESDC's next full board meeting on Dec. 17.
The approved plan would then face a public hearing, to be held at the technology campus offices in Malta.
The hearing, originally planned for Dec. 1, hasn't yet been rescheduled.
Following the hearing, the state Public Authorities Control Board also would have to approve the incentives.
That likely wouldn't happen until the control board's meeting on Jan. 21.
AMD spokesman Travis Bullard said the delay, caused by the need to prepare additional documents, won't have an impact on the Luther Forest timetable. AMD had said that the company wants to break ground by the middle of next year.
"We're still confident that the review and transfer will not affect the overall project timeline," Bullard said.
AMD also needs review of the transaction by the U.S. Treasury Department's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to make sure the deal with Abu Dhabi raises no national security issues.
However, deliberations of that committee and documents related to the case are kept confidential by law, said Treasury spokesman Rob Saliterman.
AMD also hasn't yet decided when it will hold its shareholder vote on the deal, Bullard said.