Intel invests big in US; Just as others cut costs

Chip giant Intel is swimming against the tide. At a time when most of the companies are cutting back on their expenses in the U.S., Intel is investing massively in that country. The company on February 10 announced plans to invest $7 billion over the next two years to expand and transform three U.S. manufacturing plants. With this initiative, Intel aims to outpace rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in its core PC business, reported BusinessWeek.

The company plans to begin shipping in volume the world's first microprocessors created at the atomic 32-nanometer level-transistors so small that 4 million of them could fit on the period at the end of this sentence, as early as this fall. Intel plans to begin retooling chipmaking plants in Arizona, New Mexico, and Oregon, where a total of 7,000 people will be employed.

By shifting to a more efficient manufacturing process, Intel hopes to sell chips to consumer electronics, cell phones, and other Internet-connected devices. Such chips could substantially lower development costs for Nokia (NOK), Samsung, Sony (SNE), and other manufacturers struggling to outdo each other with cutting-edge TVs, phones, and other devices.
"We're investing in America to keep Intel and our nation at the forefront of innovation," said Intel CEO Paul S. Otellini. "The chips that the new fabs produce will become the basic building blocks of the digital world, generating economic returns far beyond our industry," he added.

Intel executives had been signaling for weeks that the chipmaker remained on track to spend $5.2 billion, or roughly the same as it spent on capital improvements in 2008, to move to the 32-nanometer manufacturing process.

Agencies