Chipmaker Intel has announced a major investment in two factories to produce chips. The company wants to expand its facilities in Arizona and is making about 20 billion dollars available for this. The two new factories should be ready in three years.
The announcement comes at a time when the entire chip sector is facing major shortages. Those problems arose last year. Samsung recently warned that the introduction of the new Galaxy Note may be in danger.
Long-term investment
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger says “Intel is uniquely positioned to meet demand”. The chip shortages of today are temporary in nature, although the question is whether the problems can be solved within a few months. Intel’s investment is primarily intended for the long term. The expectation is that the demand for chips will only increase.
Intel suffers from competitors such as the Taiwanese TSMC, the main producer of iPhones, for example, and the South Korean Samsung. The Financial Times writes that with this announcement, the company is rejecting the suggestion that it should stop producing chips itself.
Shares of TSMC and Samsung closed in Asia after the news from Intel. The share of the American chip manufacturer rose sharply after the market.
Producing for others
Besides the fact that the American group continues to produce its own chips, which are widely used in computers, it also wants to make production capacity available to other parties. According to business channel CNBC, parties such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft could become customers.
Apple announced last year that it would use Intel chips in Mac computers. The company is currently designing its own processors. Intel may want to entice Apple to produce its self-designed chips at the company in the long run.