BIZCHINA / Overseas Investment
Chip giant Intel plans new China plant
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-01-16 09:12
Intel Corp., the world's top chipmaker, plans to invest in a major new
plant in China to make leading-edge chips, its biggest investment in the
country to date, two sources with knowledge of the plan said.
The plant will make 65-nanometre multi-core processors, the sources, who
asked not to be identified, told Reuters. This would make it Intel's
first such manufacturing facility in Asia.
Intel, which has invested about $1 billion in China to date, already has
major test and assembly plants in Shanghai and the interior city of
Chengdu.
One source said the investment in the new plant would total a "couple
billion" dollars. Both sources declined to give further details of the
project, such as the location and timing, although one said the
investment could be announced in coming months.
Chip sophistication is measured by how small individual circuits are,
with 65-nanometre considered one of the most advanced technologies in
mass production today.
An Intel spokesman in Asia had no comment on Friday.
Intel is in the midst of a major overhaul, including price and job cuts
and new product roll-outs, as it works to stave off recent advances by
rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc., which has gained market share in the
last few years.
Intel, which entered the China market in 1985, has over 6,000 employees
working on assembly, testing, research and development and sales and
marketing in 16 cities there, according to the company's Web site.
Until now, most foreign chipmakers have used China for lower-technology
test and assembly work, with few doing more sophisticated production in
the market.
Intel said last month it would make China an independent sales and
marketing region from the beginning of 2007, underlining the country's
growing importance as the company's second-largest consumer market after
the United States.
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
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