Intel wants to invest 7 billion euros in Irish chip factory

Intel is willing to invest €7 billion in an expansion of its campus in Leixlip, County Kildare, Ireland. The investment includes an expansion of its chip factory and an increase of 1,600 jobs at the site.

Intel has applied to Kildare County authorities to use 110,000 square feet for construction. The plans are an extension of the existing application from 2017, when it concerned 90,000 square meters. These plans involved 3.5 billion euros. Construction is slated to create 3,000 jobs in 2017 and the eventual facility would create 800 full-time jobs.

The expansion will add another 3,000 construction jobs and, upon completion, will add 800 additional Intel employees, the Irish Times reports. Construction would take about four years.

The plans include expanding parking spaces for cars and bicycles, the construction of a 48-metre high tower, the installation of generators and a water treatment plant and the installation of eight large water tanks. Intel is already one of the largest users of water in the region. That consumption will increase by another 50 percent. Intel also plans to run shuttle buses between its campus and the nearby towns of Celbridge, Leixlip, Maynooth and Lucan.

Details about the chip factory that Intel wants to build are still unknown. The report follows news from late January of a $9.5 billion investment to expand its factory in the Israeli industrial city of Kiryat Gat and an expansion of its factory in Oregon, US, which would create 1,750 new jobs. The investments are likely related to the switch from immersion lithography machines for chip production to euv machines, which Intel needs for its 7nm production and subsequent nodes.