SAN FRANCISCO — Intel Corp. on Tuesday revealed the scope of its latest infusion to keep its factories cutting-edge and push the chip industry’s pace: an investment of up to $8 billion to build a new factory in Oregon and upgrade four existing plants in Arizona and Oregon.
In all, the projects will create up to 8,000 temporary construction jobs and up to 1,000 permanent positions in Oregon when that factory opens in 2013.
Intel’s problem with factories is akin to a car needing a new engine every couple of years to avoid becoming a dinosaur. Intel’s factories are the Ferraris of the semiconductor world. They need constant, massive investments to keep up with the breakneck pace of technological progress that Intel itself set and has pushed for more than 40 years.
“Today’s announcement reflects the next tranche of the continued advancement of Moore’s Law and a further commitment to invest in the future of Intel and America,” Intel president and chief executive Paul Otellini said.
Moore’s Law is Intel co- founder Gordon Moore’s famous prediction in 1965 that computer chips’ performance would roughly double every two years as manufacturing technology improves and more transistors, or tiny on/off switches, can be crammed onto the chips. The other side of that prediction is that prices will also fall.
Tuesday’s announcement underscores Intel’s role as the world’s biggest manufacturer of microprocessors, which are the “brains” of computers.
