Intel breaks ground on two advanced chip fabs in Arizona

[nanoguy]

What just happened? Intel started construction on two advanced chip plants in Arizona, which will help the company build more manufacturing capacity and a more resilient global supply chain. The move comes amid a race to expand chipmaking capabilities and is motivated by the company's ambition to retake the leadership position in process and packaging technology.

Earlier today, Intel broke ground on two chip plants in Arizona that are expected to become fully operational in 2024. The two manufacturing facilities are dubbed Fab 52 and Fab 62 and will be built near four existing fabs at the company's Ocotillo campus in Chandler, Arizona.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger met with government officials for a ceremony to celebrate what he says is the largest private investment in Arizona's history. The $20 billion project will expand the company's manufacturing capacity and house state-of-the-art EUV production lines to produce the world's most advanced chips.

Gelsinger believes this will help Intel reclaim its "unquestioned leadership in process and packaging technology" by 2025 and create thousands of new jobs. This includes 3,000 high-tech, high-paying jobs, 3,000 construction jobs, and 15,000 additional indirect jobs in the region.

The new chip plants are part of Intel's renewed IDM 2.0 strategy that will see the company's newly formed Intel Foundry Services (IFS) division take on contract manufacturing for other companies for the first time in company history.

At the same time, the company says it's doing its part in helping to rebuild US leadership in the semiconductor space and developing a more balanced global supply chain for advanced chips. To that end, IFS President Randhir Thakur called for the Biden administration to consider boosting funding for domestic semiconductor manufacturing beyond the $52 billion currently allocated in that direction.

Team Blue's new effort is off to a great start. Back in July, Intel Foundry Services revealed its first two high-profile customers—Qualcomm and Amazon. Last month, it also secured a contract with the Pentagon for the first phase of the Rapid Assured Microelectronics Prototypes - Commercial (RAMP-C) program to build systems with American-made chips.

When operational, the two new factories in Arizona will produce chips using Intel's 20A process, the first to use its "RibbonFET" version of Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistors and PowerVia interconnects. Gelsinger wouldn't say how much of the new capacity will be reserved for Intel Foundry Services customers, as it's too early to give an accurate estimate. However, he did say the two fabs will have a combined production capacity of "thousands" of wafers per week.

And this is just the beginning. Intel already spilled the beans earlier this year on plans to spend anywhere between $60 to $120 billion to build a new mega-fab in the US to be more competitive with TSMC and Samsung. Intel will also allocate $95 billion to build two chip plants in Europe. The company is currently in talks with several officials to secure subsidies from the EU's Recovery and Resilience Fund.

Gelsinger says the company will announce the locations of the new sites in the coming months.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/91423-intel-breaks-ground-two-advanced-chip-fabs-arizona.html

 

[RudyBob]

The more of everything Made in the USA is good for the USA
The more of everything Made in Great Britain is good for Great Britain
The more of everything Made in ______ is good for ______

 

[Irata]

So are these fabs govt sponsored?

 

[kiwigraeme]

The more of everything Made in the USA is good for the USA
The more of everything Made in Great Britain is good for Great Britain
The more of everything Made in ______ is good for ______

Yes & no - I understand the self sufficiency argument - one of the reasons stuff went to China was the toxic work environment and amount of pollution , waste produced - now that is not a good thing. But going forward this type of production should be handled by countries that can handle it - now the USA can - though some people think it's political to make sure companies look after the environment and workers conditions.

I understand self sufficiency and all that - but it is best that all countries produce something - it's better for world peace, the environment at all that and GNP .
If you want to study it - it's actually more optimum to buy something from country X product Y( there number one export ) even if you make/grow it more efficiently - strange but true . very poor answer below

Because you can make many other things even more efficiently which you can sell to country X - they get the money from selling product Y to you - everyone's better off - world peace , no need for charity etc .
People do whole PhDs on this stuff

 

[hahahanoobs]

Intel regretted not being a true IDM. Enter IDM 2.0. This is supposed to drop reliance on others. Over time of course. I would expect Intel to become more and more independent as time goes on.

 

[hahahanoobs]

So are these fabs govt sponsored?

I wouldn't be surprised considering it would make sense to do so.

"Advanced domestic chipmaking capacity and capabilities are critical for the sake of both economic and national security. The United States has lost ground in semiconductor manufacturing and is at risk of falling farther behind."

 

[psycros]

Sadly, almost every one of those chips will still be sent to China. Fabs are almost totally automated - the "thousands of jobs" claim is nonsense. Sure, I'm glad their at least going to be building more silicon in the US but we should really be moving the whole production chain back to the free world. *Then* you're talking lots of jobs, most of them entry-level. The slightly elevated price of consumer electronics would be greatly if not completely offset by getting more people back to work and not having all the security concerns. If people are willing to work for Wal-Mart and Amazon then they'll darn well work on an assembly line.

 

[drjekelmrhyde]

Wouldn't it make more sense to put these in cooler place that's not a water sucking desert?

 

[yRaz]

Thousands of crap jobs. They're building it in Arizona which is a right to work state. IE, they can pay people nothing. I wanted to go out and work on this project for a few years but the union hall I work out of says they don't want to pay.

So are these fabs govt sponsored?

No, or else they'd be forced to work out of union halls. However, they won't be paying any taxes

 

[Puiu]

I very much doubt that they'll be able to compete with TSMC and Samsung with fabs in the US. It's a logistics and man power nightmare to run such big fabs.

 

[RudyBob]

Thousands of crap jobs. They're building it in Arizona which is a right to work state. IE, they can pay people nothing. I wanted to go out and work on this project for a few years but the union hall I work out of says they don't want to pay.



No, or else they'd be forced to work out of union halls. However, they won't be paying any taxes

Nobody gets paid nothing

 

[yRaz]

Nobody gets paid nothing

If it costs as much to live in an area that you make working then you effectively make nothing. Surviving and living are two totally different things. I'd rather LIVE in Pennsylvania than SURVIVE in Arizona.

 

[ilt24]

Sadly, almost every one of those chips will still be sent to China. Fabs are almost totally automated - the "thousands of jobs" claim is nonsense.

While the movement of wafers through a fab is now highly automated, you still need plenty of people to run a factory. While people are no longer needed to to manually move wafers, the number of people need to support the the manufacturing equipment is significantly higher than it had been in the days of operators walking boxes of wafers from one piece of equipment to another.

Oh and as far as chips being sent to China, some yes but not all. While Intel makes it wafers is the US, Ireland and Israel, those wafers get shipped mostly to Asia to be assembled and tested. In Intel's case they do this work in China, Malaysia, Vietnam and Costa Rica.

 

[seeprime]

Wouldn't it make more sense to put these in cooler place that's not a water sucking desert?

Arizona is one of the most geologically stable places in North America. No earthquakes will damage the fabs. No hurricanes or tornadoes are likely to show up and damage the infrastructure. Water can be trucked in. This is the way.

 

[CBTex]

Thousands of crap jobs. They're building it in Arizona which is a right to work state. IE, they can pay people nothing. I wanted to go out and work on this project for a few years but the union hall I work out of says they don't want to pay.

No, or else they'd be forced to work out of union halls. However, they won't be paying any taxes

If they pay nothing as you say, it sure will be hard to get any work done.

Thousands of crap jobs. They're building it in Arizona which is a right to work state. IE, they can pay people nothing. I wanted to go out and work on this project for a few years but the union hall I work out of says they don't want to pay.



No, or else they'd be forced to work out of union halls. However, they won't be paying any taxes

Yawn. Please stop with this tired union rhetoric. If they pay "nothing" as you say, they won't be able to get anything done. Maybe your union wasn't able to show increased productivity levels sufficient to match increased wage demands. Don't get butt hurt when you get undercut on a job if someone's willing to do the same work for less.

Full disclosure, I've worked union jobs. All my union did was protect lazy, worthless employees and removed incentives for hard work by basing everything on seniority instead of merit and ability.