Intel to invest $3.5 billion to boost its manufacturing operations in New Mexico
By Ishika Dangayach on May 04, 2021 | 05:34 AM IST
Intel Corp announced a $3.5 billion investment in its Rio Rancho, New Mexico manufacturing plant to advance innovative chip packaging technologies on Monday.
The semiconductor company planned to invest in extending its Foveros advanced packaging technology at the Rio Rancho campus, marking a 40% growth in the company's footprint at the location.
Foveros is an advanced 3D packaging technology developed by Intel that helps the company to stack pre-manufactured computing tiles vertically to reduce chip footprint and optimize for cost and power consumption.
Intel's packaging extension will assist the firm in meeting production demand as it expands into producing more 3D-stacked chips, such as the newly announced 7nm Meteor Lake chips.
The company currently employs 1,800 people at the site, which will be expanded by 700 new jobs provided by the new investment. Intel also claims that the extension would generate 1,000 construction jobs and boost 3,500 local jobs.
The Rio Rancho announcement follows Intel's move to its current IDM 2.0 platform, which will include manufacturing custom chips for third parties while greatly expanding its production capability.
“Intel’s $3.5 billion investment in New Mexico will create 700 new jobs in the next three years and establish the Rio Rancho campus as the company's domestic hub for advanced semiconductor manufacturing, said New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, in a statement.
“With this exciting development, we are already seeing the benefits of this year's legislation expanding LEDA, generating high-quality and high-paying jobs for New Mexicans.”
The California headquartered company has also announced a $20 billion investment in two new fabs in Arizona, and it is now pursuing government subsidies for further US-based growth.
The semiconductor company recently announced a $10 billion investment in its Israeli facilities and is currently targeting $10 billion in EU financing for a new European fab.
Intel's spending pace coincides with TSMC's $100 billion investment in fabs and R&D over the next three years.
Picture Credit: Firstpost