Intel announced that it will spend $3.5 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside of Albuquerque.

“A key differentiator for our … strategy is our unquestioned leadership in advanced packaging, which allows us to mix and match compute tiles to deliver the best products,” Intel senior vice president Keyvan Esfarjani says. “We’re seeing tremendous interest in these capabilities from the industry, especially following the introduction of our new Intel Foundry Services. We’re proud to have invested in New Mexico for more than 40 years and we see our Rio Rancho campus continuing to play a critical role in Intel’s global manufacturing network in our new era.”

The Rio Rancho facility will be upgraded to enable the manufacturing of advanced semiconductor packaging technologies like Foveros, Intel’s 3D packaging technique. The investment is described as multi-year and will create 700 new high-tech jobs and 1,000 construction jobs, and will support an additional 3,500 jobs in New Mexico. Construction is expected to begin in late 2021.

“Intel’s $3.5 billion investment in New Mexico will … establish the Rio Rancho campus as the company’s domestic hub for advanced semiconductor manufacturing,” New Mexico governor Michelle Lujan Grisham says. “With this exciting development, we are already seeing the benefits of this year’s legislation expanding LEDA [Local Economic Development Act], generating high-quality and high-paying jobs for New Mexicans. The state and Intel have a 40-year partnership, and today, with innovative economic development tools and global demand for this technology, we can celebrate a new generation of workers and job growth at Intel’s New Mexico manufacturing plant.”

Intel sees its manufacturing capabilities not as a liability, as with many outside observers, but rather as an advantage and differentiator. New Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has thus made investing in the firm’s manufacturing capabilities a priority, even while the microprocessor giant will likely seek third-party fabrication help while it upgrades its own facilities.

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