Intel Corp yesterday held a groundbreaking ceremony for its first chip factory in China, expanding its presence in the booming Chinese computer industry and boosting Beijing's campaign to lure foreign high-tech investment.
The US$2.5 billion facility, one of the biggest single foreign investments in China, will be Intel's first silicon-wafer fabrication plant in Asia and its eighth worldwide. It is set to open in 2010 with a work force of 1,200.
The new factory, dubbed "Fab 68," will produce chipsets, which connect microprocessors to other computer components. Intel says it chose not to equip the plant with its most advanced processes because of US restrictions on high-tech exports.
The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by Intel chairman Craig Barrett, a deputy chairman of the Chinese Cabinet's main planning agency and the mayor of this northeastern port city, which is a growing center for the software and computer industries.
"China is obviously such a booming economy. We very much felt like it was important to be near our customers," said Kirby Jefferson, the Dalian plant's general manager, in an interview ahead of the ceremony.
Santa Clara, California-based Intel says China already is its second-largest market after the US and is expected to be the world's biggest information technology market by 2010.
Foreign investment in China's computer and other high-tech industries is growing as companies set up factories and research centers. But the communist government wants more and offers tax breaks and other incentives to lure investors.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (
"What we hope is that growth enterprises and emerging companies will base more of their research and development centers in China," Wen said on Thursday in Dalian at the World Economic Forum, a gathering of Chinese and foreign business leaders.
The Intel investment also gives a boost to government efforts to develop China's northeast, a former heartland for state industry that has suffered a steep decline.
Intel picked China because of its market and growing pool of skilled workers, rather than for the low labor costs that attract other manufacturers, Jefferson said. He said because of the huge investment in equipment for chip production, labor was only a small fraction of total costs.
"It's really that we're coming here simply because of the market," Jefferson said.
Intel also has "wafer fabs" in the US, Ireland and Israel. It has assembly and test facilities in Costa Rica, Malaysia and the Philippines. In China, the company has factories in Shanghai and Chengdu making memory chips, microprocessors and other products, and research centers in Beijing and Shanghai.
The company is still deciding which level of technology to use in Dalian, Jefferson said. He said it would be either a 65nm or a 90nm process. That is considered to be one to two generations behind Intel's most advanced processes, which can make circuits 45nm wide.
Intel says it chose not to apply for a US license to transfer its most advanced process to China because of restrictions on high-tech exports to countries where Washington has security concerns.
But Intel plans to upgrade the Dalian facility as US regulations change, Jefferson said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said its materials management head, Vanessa Lee (李文如), had tendered her resignation for personal reasons. The personnel adjustment takes effect tomorrow, TSMC said in a statement. The latest development came one month after Lee reportedly took leave from the middle of last month. Cliff Hou (侯永清), senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer, is to concurrently take on the role of head of the materials management division, which has been under his supervision, TSMC said. Lee, who joined TSMC in 2022, was appointed senior director of materials management and
Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登精密), the sole extreme ultraviolet pod supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), yesterday said it has trimmed its revenue growth target for this year as US tariffs are likely to depress customer demand and weigh on the whole supply chain. Gudeng’s remarks came after the US on Monday notified 14 countries, including Japan and South Korea, of new tariff rates that are set to take effect on Aug. 1. Taiwan is still negotiating for a rate lower than the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs announced by the US in April, which it later postponed to today. The
MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR: Revenue from AI servers made up more than 50 percent of Wistron’s total server revenue in the second quarter, the company said Wistron Corp (緯創) on Tuesday reported a 135.6 percent year-on-year surge in revenue for last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, with the momentum expected to extend into the third quarter. Revenue last month reached NT$209.18 billion (US$7.2 billion), a record high for June, bringing second-quarter revenue to NT$551.29 billion, a 129.47 percent annual increase, the company said. Revenue in the first half of the year totaled NT$897.77 billion, up 87.36 percent from a year earlier and also a record high for the period, it said. The company remains cautiously optimistic about AI server shipments in the third quarter,
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Thursday met with US President Donald Trump at the White House, days before a planned trip to China by the head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, people familiar with the matter said. Details of what the two men discussed were not immediately available, and the people familiar with the meeting declined to elaborate on the agenda. Spokespeople for the White House had no immediate comment. Nvidia declined to comment. Nvidia’s CEO has been vocal about the need for US companies to access the world’s largest semiconductor market and is a frequent visitor to China.
RSS