Intel begins construction of two new chip factories in Arizona
Intel has started building two new chip factories in the US state of Arizona. These factories, which will be called Fab 52 and Fab 62, will cost a combined $20 billion and should be fully operational by 2024.
Intel reports in a press release that the two new chip factories will, among other things, produce chips on the Intel 20A node. That name refers to 20 ngström, which corresponds to 2nm. The chip giant announced its new production roadmap earlier this year and already stated that it would introduce its 20A process in the first half of 2024. The new chip factories will therefore play a major role in Intel’s goal to regain leadership in the semiconductor sector by 2025.
The two new fabs will also be the first Intel chip factories to reserve production capacity for outside customers. Intel indicated in March that it will also produce chips for other companies and some companies have now indicated that they will use them. For example, Intel will start producing chips for Qualcomm from 2024, whose SOCs are used in smartphones and laptops. The Intel 20A process would also be used.
According to Intel, the new chip plants should create a total of 3,000 high-tech jobs, in addition to 3,000 construction jobs and 13,000 “indirect” jobs in the local community surrounding the Arizona factories. It is not yet known what the production capacity of the new chip factories will be, but Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger tells Reuters that this concerns ‘thousands of wafers per week’.
According to Gelsinger, Intel also plans to announce another Intel campus before the end of 2021, which will eventually include eight new chip factories. The company previously indicated that it is investigating those possibilities. It is not known where these new chip factories will be located, but the company reported in August that it is looking ‘wide’ over the US.
“We are currently in talks with a number of states in the US who are making proposals to us for locations in the areas of energy, water, environment, near universities, skill capacity. I expect to make an announcement before the end of this year. can do about that location,” Gelsinger told The Washington Post in an interview.
Intel held a ceremony this week at the construction site of the new chip factories