“Intel Corp. used President Obama’s visit to disclose plans to build a $5 billion chip factory in Arizona and hire 4,000 workers, moves that dovetail with the administration’s job-creation agenda,” Don Clark and Joel Millman report for The Wall Street Journal. “The move, made by Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini as the president toured Intel’s operations in Oregon, is the latest in a series of steps by the Silicon Valley giant to boost manufacturing capacity and use new production processes to boost chip performance.”
“President Obama’s trip west to meet with high-tech leaders comes amid a looming budget fight in Washington and corporate opposition to some of the president’s policies,” Clark and Millman report. “On Thursday, Mr. Obama had a dinner near San Francisco with a dozen high-tech CEOs, including Apple Inc.’s Steve Jobs, Facebook Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google Inc.’s Eric Schmidt and Oracle Corp.’s Larry Ellison.”
Clark and Millman report, “Mr. Otellini hasn’t been shy about criticizing the administration; Intel has expressed concerns about the high cost of doing business in the U.S. and the possible impact of proposed greenhouse gas regulation.”
“Intel said the new factory, in Chandler, Ariz., will have capability to make chips with dimensions as small as 14 nanometers,” Clark and Millman report. “Chandler is already home to one of the company’s biggest production sites, though it also has high-volume manufacturing in Oregon, New Mexico, Ireland, Israel and China. The new project will lead to thousands of construction and permanent manufacturing jobs, Intel said. Construction is expected to begin in the middle of this year and is expected to be completed in 2013, Intel said.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]