Page Two	E-mail PagePrint Version

SANTA CLARA – 04/06/07 – Microchip giant Intel has unveiled plans to build a $2.5 billion semiconductor plant near China’s northeast port city of Dalian.

The factory will reportedly supply chipsets to customers throughout China, which Intel expects to be the largest information technology market by the time the facility opens in 2010.

Chipsets are computer chips that connect a microprocessor to other system components.

The planned Dalian plant will be Intel's first factory in Asia that will fabricate wafers, the thin silicon platters on which dozens of chips are etched, and is expected to boost the company’s investments in the country to $4 billion.

The facility will be sited in a high-tech zone just north of the port and will be one of Intel's eight factories worldwide to produce 12-inch integrated wafers.

The Chinese government had said earlier that Intel will be using 90-nanometer technology – the making of circuits 90 billionths of a meter in width, a technology that is  considered to be just one to two generations behind Intel's most advanced technology.

Construction of the plant is scheduled to start before the end of this year.The new project will make Intel "one of the largest foreign investors in China" with nearly $4 billion of investment, said Paul Otellini, Intel's president and CEO, at a recent press conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Intel has invested $1.3 billion in the past two decades in assembly, test and research and development facilities in China with operations in both Shanghai and Chengdun that employ about 6,000 workers.

The Chinese government has been trying to attract such high-tech projects in hopes they will help China evolve from a low-cost manufacturing center to a creator of profitable advanced technologies.

The government hopes the new Intel factory will "bring more value-added research projects" to Dalian, said Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top planning agency.

The new Intel plant will reportedly be China's biggest foreign high-tech investment to date.

Go back, or read the latest Page Two stories:

MATTEL ACQUIRES FRENCH GAME COMPANY

EL SEGUNDO – 01/26/09 – Toy and game giant Mattel Inc. has acquired France-based Sekkoia SAS, which produces the Blokus family of games; Blokus was launched in September 2000 and now ranks as one of the best selling board game packages in the world.