Intel adds $375m to Asia-Pacific investment tally

Intel is investing $375 million in a chip assembly and testing plant to be constructed in China's Sichuan province, the chip giant said yesterday.

The facility, Intel's second such plant in China, will employ 675 people and begin operation in 2005. Construction work on the plant will start around the middle of next year.

The move is the latest in a series of investments Intel has made in Far Eastern facilities. Its Shanghai assembly and test plant was opened in 1999 and has been fed with more than $500 million in funding since then. Earlier this month, Intel said it would spend $100 million expanding its Malaysian assembly plant with R&D facilities, in addition to the $40 million being used to found a design centre in Penang. It has pumped extra cash into its Philippines assembly plants this year too.

On Monday, the company said it would open a communications chip design centre in Taiwan, initially employing 25 people, rising to between 50 and 60 over the next few years.

Intel's interest in the Far East isn't surprising, given than around 40 per cent of the company's sales are made in the region. ®