Intel on Monday plans to announce a $3.5 billion upgrade to a chip manufacturing plant in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. That spending, combined with $20 billion to build two new facilities in Arizona, is part of a major effort by Intel to rejuvenate its manufacturing.
The chipmaker on Sunday confirmed the $3.5 billion upgrade plan, first reported on CBS’ 60 Minutes. Intel manufacturing chief Keyvan Esfarjani will detail the plan at a press conference with New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, New Mexico’s two senators, Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, Intel said.
Intel is happy with current political efforts to drum up federal funding to help the US chip industry. New CEO Pat Gelsinger said Intel will invest more of its own money, too, instead of spending it on buying its own stock, which keeps shareholders happy but doesn’t help research or operations.
“We will not be anywhere near as focused on buybacks going forward as we have in the past,” Gelsinger told 60 Minutes. “That’s been reviewed as part of my coming into the company, agreed upon with the board of directors.”
Appeasing shareholders was important as Intel struggled, Moor Insights and Strategy analyst Patrick Moorhead tweeted Monday. “If they didn’t do buybacks I think the company would have been broken up,” Moorhead said. One widely suggested remedy for Intel’s woes has been to split its chip design business, which comes up with processors like its Core and Xeon models, from its chip manufacturing business.
Intel led chipmaking progress for decades but fell behind Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.in recent years. Investing in its new chipmaking plants, called fabs, is part of a major Intel effort to restore its competitiveness under Gelsinger. The company is also planning to build chips for others, a business called a foundry, and to rely on other chip foundries to build some of its own chips.
The Silicon Valley company remains profitable, but it faces stiff competition on several fronts besides TSMC and the third major chipmaker, Samsung. All smartphone processors are members of the Arm family, including Apple‘s A series. Apple also has split from…
Read More: Intel to invest $3.5B in New Mexico fab upgrade, boosting US chipmaking