INTEL WILL make a decision next month on where to build a factory for its next generation of microprocessors according to the general manager of its operations in Israel.
Maxine Fassberg said Israel and Ireland will be two of the main locations competing for the 22-nanometer plant.
The new technology allows even more chips to be created on a single wafer during the manufacturing process.
The last major investment won by Intel’s plant in Leixlip was the $2 billion that went into the Fab24-2 factory, announced in May 2004.
That facility runs 65 nanometre process technology.
Last summer Intel’s Irish operations cut almost 300 jobs with the decision to mothball one of its older facilities – Fab14 – and make it available for new investments by its US parent.
Intel is negotiating with Israel for a grant to expand its Fab 28 plant in Kiryat Gat to include 22-nanometer technology, an upgrade that will cost $2.7 billion dollars, Ms Fassberg said.
“We must prove that we are competitive in the grants and benefits that Intel gets from other countries in the world,” Ms Fassberg said, citing Ireland, which offers a low corporate tax rate, as a top rival.
She said Intel will decide in mid-March where to put the 22-nanometer plant.
The new technology will be used in future chips from Intel which will hit the market in the second half of 2011.
Intel, whose processors run more than 80 per cent of the world’s personal computers, employs 6,340 people in Israel and is the country’s largest private exporter and biggest private sector employer.
The company employs about 4,500 in Ireland at Leixlip and an operation in Shannon, Co Clare.
Intel Israel said exports grew 145 per cent in 2009 to a record $3.4 billion as it increased production at the new Fab 28 plant in Kiryat Gat.
The company accounted for 10 per cent of Israel’s industrial exports, Intel Israel’s general manager said.
Intel Israel had expected Fab 28 to boost exports after they fell in 2008 following the closure of a Jerusalem factory and the merging of a unit that made chips for mobile phones into a joint venture with STMicroelectronics.
The Jerusalem factory reopened in November for final-stage chip production and will increase exports in 2010, Ms Fassberg said.
Intel has received $1.2 billion in grants from the Israeli government since it began manufacturing in the country 25 years ago.
The chipmaker has invested a total of $7.3 billion in its Israeli operations. Since opening in Ireland in 1990 it has invested just under $8 billion here. (Additional reporting: Bloomberg)
