Intel Corporation will invest $7 billion over the next two years to upgrade U.S. factories for its 32-nanometer (nm) chips. The company says the investment will be used to expand existing facilities in Arizona, New Mexico, and Oregon, and will support more than 7,000 existing jobs at those factories. “We’re investing in America to keep Intel and our nation at the forefront of innovation,” says Paul Otellini, Intel’s president and CEO. “These manufacturing facilities will produce the most advanced computing technology in the world. The capabilities of our 32nm factories are truly extraordinary, and the chips they produce will become the basic building blocks of the digital world, generating economic returns far beyond our industry.” Intel says this is the company’s largest investment to date for a new manufacturing process; the 32nm chips are approximately one-millionth of an inch in length, are faster, and consume less energy than those currently in production. The investment comes on the heels of Intel’s recent announcement that chip sales were down in 2008 by 23 percent and net income down by 90 percent; the company also recently began layoff of at least 5,000 workers at older chip factories in the United States and several Asian nations.
