Intel's $3 Billion Factory Expansion Opens in Key Comeback Step
(Bloomberg) -- Intel Corp. announced the opening of a $3 billion extension to its D1X plant in Oregon, an investment aimed at speeding up technology development needed to regain leadership of the chip industry.
The biggest maker of computer processors reiterated its plan to have better production technology than rivals by 2025 and have its factories reach parity a year earlier than that.
The 270,000-square-foot extension, an increase of 20% to the D1X facility, demonstrates the chipmaker’s willingness to spend up front to accelerate the use of more advanced production techniques, according to Sanjay Natarajan, an Intel senior vice president. D1X, effectively a giant lab, is now more capable of developing multiple methods of manufacturing in parallel and transferring them to its mass production counterparts within Intel’s network, he said.
Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger is trying to make up for time lost by his predecessors. How a chip is made determines its capabilities -- how much data it can hold, how quickly it can process that data and how much energy it uses while doing so. Intel was once the unquestioned leader in that field, allowing it to manufacture products that dominated computing and commanded high prices.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/intels-dollar3-billion-factory-expansion-opens-in-key-comeback-step/ar-AAW6yL0