Intel To Build Fab in China

Intel Corp. announced today it plans to build a 300-mm wafer fabrication facility (fab) in the coastal Northeast China city of Dalian in Liaoning Province. The $2.5 billion investment for the factory, Fab 68, will become Intel's first wafer fab in Asia and adds significant investment to Intel's existing operations in China, the company said.

"China is our fastest-growing major market, and we believe it's critical that we invest in markets that will provide for future growth to better serve our customers," said Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini. "Fab 68 will be our first new wafer fab at a new site in 15 years. Intel has been involved in China for more than 22 years, and over that time we’ve invested in excess of $1.3 billion in assembly test facilities and research and development. This new investment will bring our total to just under $4 billion, making Intel one of the largest foreign investors in China."

Not since 1992, with the construction of Fab 10 in Ireland, has Intel built a fab from the ground up at a brand-new site. Construction on Fab 68 is scheduled to begin later this year, with production projected to begin in the first half of 2010. Initial production will be dedicated to chipsets to support Intel's core microprocessor business.

"This is one of the major cooperative projects between China and the United States in the area of integrated circuits manufacturing in recent years," said Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission. "We support Intel's initiative to expand and strengthen cooperation with relevant parties in a number of areas, such as talent training, technology standards, improved information technology for rural areas and digital health, to promote the mutual benefit and win-win of Intel and the information industry of China, and to achieve the goal of growing together."

When completed, Fab 68 will become part of Intel's manufacturing network that includes eight 300-mm factories in 2010, with other fabs located in the United States, Ireland and Israel. Manufacturing with 300-mm wafers dramatically increases the ability to produce semiconductors at a lower cost compared with more commonly used 200-mm (eight-inch) wafers, Intel said. "The bigger wafers lower production cost per chip while diminishing overall use of resources. Using 300-mm manufacturing technology consumes 40 percent less energy and water per chip than a 200-mm wafer factory.

For more information, visit: www.intel.com