China gets Intel's first fab in Asia

BANGALORE: Intel Corp. said its first silicon wafer-fabrication plant in Asia would come up in the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian.

A Los Angeles Times report said the $2.5 billion microchip manufacturing plant would begin production in 2010. It would employ about 1,500 workers, once the plant is fully operational.

"China is our fastest-growing major market, and we believe it's critical that we invest in markets that will provide for future growth to better serve our customers," the report quoted Paul S. Otellini, Intel's president and chief executive, as saying in a statement.

A formal announcement regarding the fab in China was expected in Beijing on Monday.

The announcement was likely to trigger concern in the US over technology transfer and "the continued buildup of higher-end production work and jobs overseas," the report said.

The Santa Clara, California-based Intel would still need approval from the US Department of Commerce's office that scrutinizes the export of technologies considered sensitive to the national security of that country.

The company was expected to produce 65-nanometer chips in China, "which would lag by two generations those Intel is likely to be making at its facilities in the United States, Israel and Ireland in 2010," the report added.

Meanwhile, on February 22 this year, India had announced the much-delayed semicon policy.

Dayanidhi Maran, the minister for communications and IT, said on Thursday that as many as three fabs were possible in the country, each costing $3 billion.

Maran said he would write to Craig Barrett, the chairman of the board at Intel Corp., to reopen negotiations for setting up a Fab in India.

Intel had earlier cancelled its plans to set up a Fab in India for the want of a Semiconductor policy. Instead, it went to Israel.

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