The move is part of Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger's strategy to restore Intel's dominance in chip making and reduce America's reliance on Asian manufacturing hubs, which have a vice-like grip on the market.
"These factories will create a new epicenter for advanced chipmaking in the US that will bolster Intel's domestic lab-to-fab pipeline," Gelsinger said in a statement. While chipmakers are scrambling to boost output, Intel's plans for new factories will not alleviate the current supply crunch, because such complexes take years to build.To dramatically increase chip production in the United States, the Biden administration is making a big push to convince Congress to approve $52 billion in funding.
"This project is a crucial step in growing America's domestic chip manufacturing capacity," Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves said in a separate statement, referring to Intel's announcement.Intel lost out to Samsung Electronics as a top semiconductor vendor in 2021 and it dropped to the second spot with 0.5% growth last year, delivering the lowest growth rate among the top 25 vendors, data from Gartner showed.
As part of its turnaround plan to become a major manufacturer of chips for outside customers, Intel broke ground on two factories in Arizona in September.