Intel plans "innovation centre" in Taiwan

TAIPEI: Intel Corporation, Chief Executive Craig Barrett Barrett announced the company's plan to open its first "Asian innovation centre" in Taiwan with 25 researchers, a number that would double over the next couple of years.

The centre would work with academic institutions and businesses to convert ideas into the next generation of products, he told reporters without giving any financial details.

The centre will help Taiwan move to an "era of innovated in Taiwan from manufactured in Taiwan", said Barrett, who added the island must continue to move up the value-added chain of manufacturing to remain a step ahead of China.

Taiwan, which has seen much of its technology sector migrate to China to take advantage of lower production costs and to be closer to the potentially massive market, hopes to find a new niche as an Asia Pacific research centre.

Calling the shots off an early turnaround in the market the chief of the world's largest maker of microchips, said he does not yet see an industry-wide recovery, even though the U.S. firm raised its profit and revenue forecasts last week.

"It's too early to suggest it is a total turnaround," Intel Chief Executive Craig Barrett, told a news conference in Taipei, after signing a deal to open a research centre in Taiwan.

Intel said that revenues in the third quarter would rise roughly 11 percent from the second quarter to a range of $7.3 billion to $7.8 billion because of stronger demand from computer makers, sending its shares to a 14-month high.

Intel Chief Financial Officer Andy Bryant, however, also declined to call a definitive recovery in the struggling microchip industry and said sales of communications chips remained soft.

© Reuters