Intel To Pour Up to $8 Billion into U.S. Manufacturing Plants

Intel Corp. said that it will spend up to $8 billion to construct a new development fabrication plant (fab) in Oregon and upgrade four existing facilities in Arizona and Oregon.

The company said that the effort will create 6,000 to 8,000 new construction jobs and 800 to 1,000 permanent high tech positions at the new facility in Oregon. The vendor said that the additional Oregon fab, named D1X, is slated to open in 2013.

“The most immediate impact of our multi-billion-dollar investment will be the thousands of jobs associated with building a new fab and upgrading four others, and the high-wage, high-tech manufacturing jobs that follow,” said Paul Otellini, Intel president and chief executive.

Upgrades are slated for two factories in Arizona, referred to as Fab 12 and Fab 32, and in Oregon, termed D1C and D1D.

The vendor said that while 75 percent of its revenue is generated overseas, a similar percentage of its chipset manufacturing resides in the U.S. The company maintained that this latest investment will enable it to maintain the existing employee headcount at its U.S. plants.

Intel officials said that deployment of its next generation 22-nanometer (nm) process technology at the new and upgraded facilities will prompt a new wave of devices with sleeker designs, higher performance and longer battery life at lower costs.

The company also said that the upgraded facilities will enable it to keep pace with expected growth in the PC market and other segments Intel addresses, including mobile and embedded computing.

“Intel makes approximately 10 billion transistors per second,” said Brian Krzanich, Intel senior vice president, general manager, Manufacturing and Supply Chain.

“Our factories produce the most advanced computer technology in the world and these investments will create capacity for innovation we haven’t yet imagined,” he said.

Intel’s most recent similar investment dates to February 2009 when it designated $7 billion to make chipsets using 32-nm process technology. The company said that the technology already has produced computer chips in use today in PCs, servers, embedded and mobile devices.

Otellini suggested that Intel’s most recent investment follows a strategy first set down by co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965, in which he predicted that the number of transistors on a chip will double every two years, a guideline—commonly known as Moore’s Law--that the vendor said it has adhered to for more than 40 years.

“Today’s announcement reflects the next tranche of the continued advancement of Moore’s Law and a further commitment to invest in the future of Intel and America,” Otellini said.